Al igual que con el huracán Lala, se espera que la Isla Grande vuelva a llevarse la peor parte del clima tropical que, según pronósticos, pasará de depresión tropical a tormenta tropical en algún momento del viernes. Casey Oswant, meteoróloga del Servicio Meteorológico Nacional en Honolulu, señaló que se espera que la lluvia y los vientos fuertes comiencen a última hora del sábado, y que la tormenta continúe desplazándose hacia el oeste a través de las islas hasta las primeras horas del martes.

“Todavía habrá impactos, especialmente en los lados de barlovento y del sureste de la Isla Grande, pero probablemente será un poco más limitado que lo que vimos con Lala”, señaló.

La costa noreste de la Isla Grande registró las lluvias más intensas por Lala, con 1,1 metros (43,54 pulgadas), según el servicio meteorológico. Las inundaciones resultantes arrancaron decenas de viviendas de sus cimientos y dañaron carreteras y puentes. Unos 11.630 clientes en la Isla Grande seguían sin electricidad el viernes, de acuerdo con poweroutage.us.

Los pronósticos de lluvia para este fin de semana en los lados sureste y de barlovento de la Isla Grande eran de 13 a 25 centímetros (5 a 10 pulgadas), con cantidades aisladas de hasta 38 centímetros (15 pulgadas), indicó Oswant. En el resto de la cadena de islas, se esperaban de 2 a 5 centímetros (1 a 2 pulgadas) de lluvia, aunque en varias partes del este de Maui podrían registrarse hasta 10 centímetros (4 pulgadas), agregó.

No había vigilancias ni advertencias costeras vigentes el viernes por la mañana, pero se instó a la población a seguir de cerca el avance de la tormenta. Según el Centro Nacional de Huracanes, las precipitaciones tienen el potencial de provocar peligrosas corrientes de resaca, inundaciones que ponen en riesgo la vida y deslizamientos de lodo, especialmente en zonas empinadas y en lugares donde el suelo sigue saturado tras el paso de Lala.

El gobernador de Hawai, Josh Green, y otros funcionarios estatales ofrecieron una conferencia de prensa el jueves por la tarde para informar sobre el avance de la recuperación tras Lala e instar a la gente a prepararse para la próxima tormenta.

Las autoridades exhortaron a quienes tienen pocas provisiones de emergencia a reabastecerse con hasta 14 días de alimentos, medicamentos y otros artículos esenciales, y a vigilar de cerca el avance de la tormenta.

“Definitivamente, hay tensión en el ambiente” ante la idea de más lluvia en comunidades que las aguas de la inundación convirtieron en ríos, señaló Tiffany Edwards Hunt, una maestra que vive en Keaau, en el lado este de la Isla Grande. “Hubo algunas zonas que quedaron completamente arrasadas”.

La empresa de servicios públicos Hawaiian Electric dijo que espera restablecer el suministro eléctrico a casi todos los clientes afectados en la Isla Grande, excepto en ciertas zonas remotas y gravemente dañadas.

___

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

“We get to race at a lot of cool cities, but this one is by far the best that we've ever had, and I can say that very truthfully," Kyle Kirkwood said Friday. "Going by the Capitol building, the views here, all the architecture of all the buildings around here, all the museums, it's stuff that you dream of.

"It's a serious honor and privilege.”

This weekend's Freedom 250 Grand Prix is the second big sporting event staged by President Donald Trump in Washington as part of the nation’s 250th birthday celebration. The first was a UFC fight card on the White House’s South Lawn in June.

IndyCar racing — an open-wheel counterpart to NASCAR — doesn’t have quite the same association with the right-wing “manosphere” or the MAGA movement, but series owner Roger Penske received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Trump in 2019 and led the effort to put together this race in the District of Columbia.

For the drivers, it’s a welcome moment in the spotlight.

“What’s been the coolest part of this week? Honestly, the media covering us,” Kirkwood said. “It’s cool to see IndyCar in this light. We don’t get these opportunities very often outside of the Indy 500, and to have an event that is sought after as much as the 500 is something that’s special.”

Washington has little history with high-level motorsports. In 2002, the parking lot at RFK Stadium on the city's east side was transformed into a course for an American Le Mans Series event.

The Freedom 250 is downtown in one of D.C.'s prime tourist areas. If you're not in a race car, it's not the greatest weekend to be driving around the area given all the road closures, but if the weather holds up, the setting has the potential to be spectacular.

“As a boy from the Netherlands that just got his green card, it is really cool,” said Rinus VeeKay, who has six top-10 finishes this season. “We didn't get too much U.S. history in school ... but learning so much about it here, seeing all the monuments and museums and just how every building kind of has a special purpose here around the city, is very cool. Getting to see the White House, this is stuff you see in movies.”

The White House is not part of the D.C. course, although after Turn 1, the track does include a lengthy straightaway along Pennsylvania Avenue, heading northwest away from the Capitol. Then there's a sharp left turn between the National Archives and the main Justice Department building, followed by a couple quick 90-degree turns as the track navigates the city's grid system.

After a straightaway takes drivers across the National Mall, they turn left onto Independence Avenue, passing the Smithsonian’s National Air & Space Museum. and the Eisenhower Memorial before heading north on 3rd Street to the finish line, which is just west of the Capitol.

“I think it's more exciting when you actually get on the grounds and see what you're about to do. I mean, when is this ever going to happen again?" said Josef Newgarden, a driver for Team Penske. “I hope it's great visibility. That's probably the biggest thing that it could bring to us — is visibility to people that aren't maybe as familiar with IndyCar racing."

IndyCar practice and qualifying are scheduled for Saturday, along with an IROC race. The IndyCar race is Sunday and set for 250 miles (147 laps) — the second-longest street circuit race in IndyCar history.

The 1.7-mile track includes seven turns in all. The Air & Space Museum and National Gallery of Art are both inside the course's perimeter, with a fan zone between them. The track is shorter and has fewer turns than several others on the IndyCar schedule, but it's not much different from the 1.6-mile, nine-turn circuit used in downtown Detroit.

“It’s short and snappy, but you know what? We don't know. We haven't driven on it yet," driver Marcus Armstrong said. “We'll find out tomorrow. It might even be wet tomorrow. There's a lot of crosswalks, a lot of paint on the track, so that could be super slippery.”

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See AP’s full auto racing coverage here

Thompson intends to sign with the Miami Heat once he clears waivers, according to a person familiar with the five-time All-Star’s plans. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Friday because Thompson has yet to reveal that detail publicly. Assuming he is not claimed by another club, Thompson may be able to sign with the Heat as early as Sunday.

The buyout announcement comes after the Mavericks missed the playoffs in both of Thompson’s seasons, which came after Doncic led Dallas to the NBA Finals in 2024.

Thompson joined Dallas in a sign-and-trade with Golden State, giving the Mavericks one of the league's all-time great 3-point shooters to complement Doncic and another high-scoring guard in Kyrie Irving.

But the high hopes for that threesome imploded after the Mavericks sent Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for the oft-injured Anthony Davis in a deal before the trade deadline in 2025. Irving tore the ACL in his left knee a month later and hasn't played since. Davis was traded to the Washington Wizards just before the February trade deadline last season.

The trade ended up derailing the franchise, although Dallas overcame steep odds to win the draft lottery a few months after dealing Doncic. With the No. 1 overall pick, the Mavericks selected Duke star freshman Cooper Flagg, who ended up winning Rookie of the Year and giving the franchise new hope.

The addition of Flagg helped led to Thompson coming off the bench in most games for the first time since his rookie year with Golden State.

The buyout of Thompson is the latest in a major retooling of the Dallas roster. His departure leaves just five players from opening day two years ago, along a new front office in president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri and general manager Mike Schmitz and a new coach in Dusty May, who replaced Jason Kidd.

Thompson won four NBA titles alongside Stephen Curry and Draymond Green with the Warriors. The 36-year-old spent his first 13 seasons with Golden State, although he missed two entire seasons with knee and Achilles injuries.

The five-time All-Star averaged 12.9 points and shot 39% from 3-point range in his two years with the Mavericks. His career marks are 19.6 points per game and 41% shooting from beyond the arc.

Thompson passed Damian Lillard for fourth place on the career 3-point list in January. He has 2,899 3-pointers, trailing Curry, James Harden and Ray Allen.

Thompson missed the playoffs just twice in the 11 seasons he played for the Warriors. He matched that number in his only two seasons with Dallas.

“Klay is one of the great players and competitors of his generation, and we are grateful for everything he brought to the Mavericks organization,” Ujiri said. “We have tremendous respect for Klay and all that he has accomplished throughout his career.”

___

AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds contributed to this story.

___

See AP’s full NBA coverage here

It takes preparation, consistency, teamwork, and a commitment to doing things right every single day.

On Friday, we’re giving a well-deserved “Clean Plate” shout-out to these establishments.

Thank you for taking food safety seriously and for giving your customers something to feel good about.

It’s hard to do and when you do it, you deserve some serious kudos!

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**EVERGLADES SAFARI RESTAURANT 26700 SW 8TH ST. SOUTH-MIAMI DADE/REDLAND 8/12

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**WHIT’S FROZEN CUSTARD 4850 N. FEDERAL HIGHWAY LIGHTHOUSE POINT 8/5

**CHIPOTLE 2110 SOUTH UNIVERSITY DR. DAVIE 8/5

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A group of Make America Healthy Again activists signed a joint letter asking President Donald Trump on Friday to “reject” coal-powered data centers.

In the letter, the 199 activists suggested that the U.S. can be a world leader in artificial intelligence “without asking children to carry more mercury in their bodies, more soot in their lungs, more heavy metals in their soil and food, or more contamination in their water.”

The activists asked Trump to “require transparent review of data-center siting and power sourcing.” The letter comes as Republican candidates face an electorate with concerns about data centers.

 “I think we should be eliminating these sweetheart tax deals that are giving our money away to these giant data center companies,” James Talrico, a Democratic candidate in Texas, told CNN.

On Wednesday, Trump said the data-center industry just needed “a little help” with public relations.

“If I were a governor or mayor, I would want that plant in my community ... and if you don’t take it, you’re going to be left behind because there are plenty of places that want it,” Trump said.

Last year, Trump signed an executive order showing his support of “America’s beautiful clean coal industry. In January, Trump declared a national energy emergency. In June, his administration announced a commitment to “reinvigorating” the industry.

In May, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Florida Senate Bill 484 into state law to stop public utilities from shifting the cost of data centers onto residential and small business customers. The law went into effect in July.

Trump asked electricity companies to sign a voluntary pledge to protect consumers from the cost of data centers. The White House reported that at least 55 utilities and 27 data center developers joined the pledge.

Texas is pausing the approval of new data centers. New York is introducing a one-year moratorium. Former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers recently called for a one-year moratorium in Michigan.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democratic presidential hopeful, signed an executive order with several new regulations.

“If a local community doesn’t approve a project, the state won’t approve it either,” Shapiro said.

The Make America Great Again’s MAHA activists also sent copies of the letter to Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, and Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Related stories

• MAHA activists urge Trump against promoting coal to power energy-hungry AI data centers
• Trump keeps embracing data centers even as they become toxic in midterm races
• Governors’ races are being increasingly buffeted by the toxic politics of data centers
• Trump expands a voluntary pledge to protect consumers from high utility bills from AI data centers

Trump said in a social media post that Martin is leaving his role as the Justice Department's pardon attorney to “fight Legal Battles” surrounding this year's midterm elections and the 2028 presidential election.

“I know he will do an outstanding job, ensure Free, Fair, and Honest Elections, and strongly advance our Constitutional Rights,” Trump wrote.

Martin has been a controversial Trump administration figure since his appointment last year as interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, where he oversaw the dismissal of Jan. 6 cases after Trump's sweeping pardons. Trump later pulled Martin's nomination for the job over bipartisan concerns about his lack of prosecutorial experience and support for rioters who violently attacked the Capitol.

He then moved to Justice Department headquarters as pardon attorney and director of a group tasked with scrutinizing actions by President Joe Biden's administration that Republicans say unfairly targeted conservatives. Then-Attorney General Pam Bondi also named him a special attorney to help conduct mortgage fraud investigations into Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

He often raised eyebrows during his tenure. In one instance, while conducting his mortgage fraud investigation into James, he sent her a letter urging her to resign from office “as an act of good faith.” He also posed for photos outside her Brooklyn home.

The Justice Department's case against James was dismissed after the judge found that another prosecutor who brought the charges was illegally appointed.

Martin was later sidelined amid clashes with Justice Department leadership and was removed as head of the “Weaponization Working Group,” though he kept his title as pardon attorney.

In a social media post Friday, Attorney General Todd Blanche called Martin a “patriot who loves this nation.” Martin didn't immediately respond to a message Friday, but on his X account he reposted Trump's announcement with the message: “Proud to serve. Fight Fight Fight.”

Before his nomination as D.C. U.S. attorney, Martin was a leader of Trump’s “Stop the Steal” movement. He spoke at a rally in Washington on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol and later served on the board of a nonprofit that raised money to support Capitol riot defendants and their families.

Trump’s post is the latest sign of his obsession with voting in the upcoming midterm elections, which will determine control of the U.S. House and Senate for the final two years of his presidency.

His administration has fixated on messaging around noncitizen voting, a rare problem that Trump falsely insists is a widespread source of fraud. His Department of Justice has been trying to gather detailed state voter data to hunt for noncitizens, and he has been pushing Congress to pass a bill that would require documentary proof of citizenship to vote in time for the November elections.

The FBI has obtained voting records or election equipment from the most populous counties in the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia and Michigan without saying what it was searching for. Trump also has issued two executive orders seeking to take control of certain election operations, even though the Constitution grants states and Congress the authority to determine election rules.

Democratic state officials have been raising alarms about the possibility of the administration deploying federal immigration agents to polling places or ordering the military to voting locations or election offices, although administration officials have said they have no such plans.

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The FDLE announced the arrest of Pearlandria Boujolly on Thursday. She is charged with one count of aggravated manslaughter of a child under 18 years old.

According to the arrest warrant, four children ranging in age from 1 to 8 years old were inside the home at the time of the incident. State investigators said the children were exposed to drugs and that three unsecured guns were also inside the home.

According to the FDLE, the investigation began Jan. 3, when Miami police and Miami Fire Rescue medics responded at approximately 3:50 a.m. to a report of an unresponsive toddler at Boujolly’s home off Northwest 91st Street near 22nd Avenue.

The child was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead a short time later, authorities confirmed.

An autopsy conducted by the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner’s Department found fentanyl and a trace amount of cocaine in the child’s blood, according to the FDLE.

Investigators say drugs were left in unlocked room

FDLE investigators said narcotics had been left inside an unlocked room at the home where the victim was found.

Investigators determined the toddler accidentally ingested a small amount of the drugs in that room.

According to the FDLE, Boujolly was not inside the home when the child consumed the drugs.

Investigators said a Ring camera captured the moments when the 18-month-old consumed the drugs before becoming unresponsive.

The prosecutor told the judge during Friday’s bond hearing that the children appeared to have been unsupervised and had access to narcotics and guns.

The investigation involved the FDLE’s South Florida State Assistance for Fentanyl Eradication, or S.A.F.E., Task Force and the Miami Police Department.

“When the deadly effects of fentanyl hit our communities, especially our children, FDLE and our partners are motivated, more than ever, to use every investigative resource available to hold everyone involved accountable,” FDLE Miami Special Agent in Charge Michael Stein said.

Miami Police Chief Edwin Lopez called the victim’s death “a heartbreaking and entirely preventable tragedy.”

“This arrest sends a clear message: there is zero tolerance for negligence that puts an innocent child’s life at risk,” Lopez said. “Parents need to be aware of what they leave accessible to children. Obviously, drugs are illegal but the death to an 18-month-old should be an alert to everyone in our community.”

Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle also addressed the arrest, calling it “a heartbreaking day when a child loses their life inside their own home due to a parent’s recklessness and dangerous drugs left out in the open.”

Arrest made months after child’s death

The FDLE said South Florida S.A.F.E. Task Force agents and Miami police arrested Boujolly at her Miami-Dade home on Thursday.

She was then transported to the Turner Guilford Knight Detention Center.

The FDLE said additional charges may be forthcoming.

Boujolly appeared before a Miami-Dade judge in bond court Friday, where the judge ordered her held without bond. Online jail records show she faces a charge of fraudulent use of a credit card in a separate case.

Thompson will need to clear waivers before he can officially sign with Miami.

Thompson, 36, was owed $17.5 million for the 2026-27 season. The Mavericks had been looking for a trade involving the veteran guard, but the two sides ultimately agreed to end his contract through a buyout, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.

The move would bring the sharpshooter to Miami after two seasons in Dallas.

During his time with the Mavericks, he appeared in 141 games, including 80 starts, and averaged 12.9 points per game while shooting 38.7% from three-point range.

Thompson entered the NBA in 2011 after the Golden State Warriors selected him 11th overall. He spent 13 seasons with Golden State, winning four NBA championships and earning five All-Star selections.

It’s been an eventful offseason for the Miami Heat who previously added Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis in a trade with the Milwaukee Bucks, along with Tim Hardaway Jr., to team with center Bam Adebayo.

The majority of Miami’s games this season, at least 68, will be airing on Local 10 News.

WPLG Local 10 and the Heat announced a newly expanded media rights agreement, making Local 10 the home of HEAT basketball across South Florida! CLICK HERE for more information on how to watch!

Heat fans can also call 786-777-4375 for more information on how to purchase tickets for the 2026-2027 season.

We are in our typical rainy season pattern with showers and thunderstorms popping up in the afternoon. Some could contain frequent lightning, gusty winds, and heavy rain. This is much needed rain for the ongoing severe to extreme drought.

An estimated 33% of active duty personnel who said they experienced unwanted sexual contact in fiscal year 2025 reported it, compared with 25% in fiscal year 2023, the report said. The findings are based on confidential surveys taken every two years as well as sexual assault reports made to authorities.

“In other words, about 1 in 3 Service members reported experiencing their sexual assault to a Department authority,” the report said. “This estimate is up from the 1 in 4 Service members estimated to have reported experiencing sexual assault in FY 2023.”

The report marks another year of improving trends in the effort to tackle sexual assault in the military. The Pentagon reports from the previous two years show drops in sexual assault reports as well as the number of service members who said they had experienced unwanted sexual contact. That followed almost a decade of rising numbers of reported assaults, though many say the numbers still are too high.

The Pentagon releases this report every year on the number of sexual assaults reported by or about troops. Because sexual assault is a highly underreported crime, the department does a confidential online survey every two years to get a clearer picture of the problem.

Defense officials have long argued that an increase in reported assaults is a positive trend because so many people are reluctant to report them, both in the military and in society as a whole. Greater reporting, they say, shows there is more confidence in the reporting system and greater comfort with the support for victims.

The number of reported sexual assaults dipped last year from the previous year. The Defense Department said it received a total of 7,998 reports of sexual assault in 2025, a decrease of 197 from 8,195 reports received in 2024.

The latest confidential survey found that unwanted sexual contact among active duty women decreased from an estimated 6.8% in 2023 to 4.3% last year. For men, the prevalence fell from an estimated 1.3% to 1%.

Sexual harassment of active duty women fell from an estimated 24.7% to 17.5% during that time, while it dropped from 5.8% to 4.4% for men, according to the survey.

While the latest Pentagon report suggests the military is making progress on changing the culture of sexual assault and its underreporting in the military, the new figures cover only the first several months of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s time leading the Pentagon.

Since his arrival, Hegseth has not shied away from firing top female leaders and instituting policies and reviews that suggest he may be looking to diminish the role that women can play in the military.

The dead, whose identities are unknown, were among the more than 90 migrants who lost their lives during Spain’s deadliest border crisis three weeks ago. Fueled by misinformation, poverty and a lack of opportunities, more than 72,000 people poured into Ceuta, a Spanish territory that neighbors Morocco.

At a Muslim cemetery in Ceuta, 18 migrants were laid to rest on Friday. An Islamic cleric read prayers and chants praising God while funeral workers worked quickly to lower the white body bags and cover them with soil. More migrants are expected to be buried soon.

The Moroccan Association for Human Rights, a left-leaning nongovernmental organization, called for the burials in Ceuta to be halted until every effort had been made to identify the bodies and repatriate them to Morocco, the country of origin for most of the migrants who made the perilous journey.

Many of those who died drowned or were killed in a stampede to cross a breakwater barrier near a border checkpoint.

In a statement, the NGO asked Morocco's foreign ministry to ensure that “the bodies are returned to the families so they can be buried with dignity.”

It called the burials in Ceuta a “new human tragedy,” adding to the “disaster of displacement and missing persons.”

A spokesperson for Ceuta’s city government said last week the paperwork to repatriate the bodies of the deceased was complete, but that Morocco’s government hadn't accepted it.

Morocco’s foreign ministry didn't respond to questions from The Associated Press about the burials that started on Friday in Ceuta or suggestions that Morocco is blocking the repatriation of identified migrant bodies.

While most of those who crossed into Ceuta in late July returned to Morocco almost immediately, local authorities say that up to 10,000 migrants — including women and children — could still be in the small Spanish city, prolonging a humanitarian crisis as authorities and locals struggle to shelter and attend to them. Spain's national government cites a lower figure of around 5,000 people.

Moroccan and Spanish authorities have blamed social media rumors and human smuggling networks for the deadly event, while migrants cited unemployment and low wages as reasons for why they made the journey.

All of those buried on Friday were men, said Said Mohammed, the cemetery’s acting manager. The graves were marked with numbered stones in case families claim the bodies in the future, he said.

Under Islamic custom, a body is placed in a grave facing Mecca, as was the case with the migrants buried in Ceuta. Just across the sea lay mainland Europe — their desired destination.

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Suman Naishadham reported from Madrid. Akram Oubachir contributed to this report from Casablanca, Morocco.

Monseñor Paolo Rocco Gualtieri atribuyó el cambio a los compromisos del sumo pontífice en Roma.

En una breve rueda de prensa en Lima tras el lanzamiento de la creación de un grupo de jóvenes voluntarios para la visita del papa, Gualtieri indicó que León XIV tiene “muchos compromisos en Roma, así que el 17 (de noviembre) tiene que estar allá”. No brindó más detalles.

Antes, durante la actividad con los jóvenes voluntarios, indicó que León XIV partirá de Perú la noche del 16 de noviembre en un viaje que empezará el 11 de ese mes y comprenderá a Argentina y Uruguay en su primera gira por Latinoamérica como pontífice.

A inicios de agosto el Vaticano anunció que el papa hará su primer viaje a Latinoamérica empezando en Uruguay, luego en Argentina y finalmente Perú. En Uruguay estará en Montevideo, Paysandú y Florida, mientras que en Argentina visitará Buenos Aires, Córdoba y Luján.

La visita es especialmente significativa por los vínculos de larga data de León XIV con Perú. El primer papa nacido en Estados Unidos pasó décadas allí como misionero y responsable de su Iglesia y se desempeñó como obispo de Chiclayo entre 2015 y 2023. Además, tiene la ciudadanía peruana.

Se espera que su regreso a Chiclayo, la diócesis que dirigió antes de su elección, sea uno de los momentos clave del viaje. En Perú también se anunció su presencia en Lima, Cusco y Pucallpa.

Robert Prevost dejó Perú en 2023 para asumir un puesto clave en el Vaticano tras el fin de las protestas en los Andes que exigían la renuncia de la entonces presidenta Dina Boluarte que dejaron 50 civiles asesinados por la fuerza pública. En su última intervención ante la prensa local, Prevost pidió a las autoridades políticas “aprender a escuchar mejor”.

The Dutch Data Protection Authority said Friday it is imposing a fine of 825 million euros ($964 million) because Uber violated the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation. The EU’s data privacy rules prohibit fully automated decision-making.

The authority also said Uber failed inform drivers about its automatic decision-making. The violations took place from 2018 to 2022, the agency said.

Uber said it disagreed with the decision and the fine and will file an appeal.

"The (Data Protection Authority) examined historic policies that were discontinued years ago. We take decisions that affect drivers' ability to earn extremely seriously and we’re fully committed to fair treatment. This includes human reviews, robust safeguards, and the opportunity for drivers to appeal our decisions if they believe we made a mistake,” the company said in a written statement.

This is the fourth time the authority has imposed a fine on Uber. The largest was in 2024, when Uber was hit with a 290 million euro ($324 million) fine for allegedly transferring personal details of European drivers to the United States without adequate protection.

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Shortly after 7:40 p.m. on Thursday, deputies found a man who was wounded in the abdomen behind a counter at the Marathon gas station at 220 South Dixie Highway, according to the report.

Zalim Bacchus, who had a .25 caliber semi-automatic pistol, “had his hands raised and sponaenously uttered, ‘I shot him,’” a deputy wrote, according to the arrest report.

The victim told deputies that after Bacchus used the restroom, he was “concealing a bottle of Sprite,” so he locked him inside the store and confronted him, according to the arrest report.

“Bacchus pulled a gun on him and fired at him,” a deputy wrote, according to the report.

Pompano Beach Fire Rescue personnel took the victim to Broward Health North in Pompano Beach, and his condition was critical but stable, according to the report.

Broward corrections booked Bacchus on Friday morning at the Broward County Main Jail in Fort Lauderdale, according to county inmate records.

Bacchus, of Pompano Beach, faced a charge of aggravated battery, a first-degree felony, and Broward County Circuit Judge Michael Lynch was set to preside over the capital case, according to county court records.

Detectives asked anyone with information about this or other cases who wants to remain anonymous to call Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.

Local 10 News Assignment Editor Carson Merlo contributed to this report.

Erik Slavin, editor-in-chief of the military newspaper that is partly funded by the Pentagon but has a long legacy of editorial independence, told The Associated Press that he and the others had received notices of separation.

The moves come at a time when the Trump administration, in its second term, has been increasingly aggressive and combative toward the news media — including sharply curtailing Pentagon access for the press corps that covers the Defense Department. Trump or other parts of the executive branch have also, in policy and in the courts, grappled with The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press and The New York Times — in addition to using the FCC to target broadcast networks.

Slavin said he was being fired “for stating in a CBS interview that hypothetical censorship of news for service members would constitute a red line.” He said he stands by the principle “that Stars and Stripes must remain editorially independent.”

Earlier this week, publisher Max Lederer announced his retirement effective at the end of September. He too received a separation notice, according to Slavin, as did Middle East reporter Lara Korte, who was cited for the same CBS interview as Slavin. Neither Lederer nor Korte immediately responded to requests for comment.

Lederer made his announcement a few weeks after the Pentagon installed a new deputy publisher, an active duty service member, under Lederer at the newspaper without his prior knowledge. Three Democratic senators on Thursday wrote to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, asking why the new deputy — Navy Capt. William Urban — had been installed.

It was unclear whether Urban would now become the new publisher. In an email message to the AP, Urban said, “I am currently the Military Deputy to the Publisher. I can’t comment on what my role will be in the future.”

The retirement of Lederer, who had been at Stars and Stripes for three decades and publisher since 2007, comes as Hegseth’s Pentagon moves to exert editorial control and eliminate what it asserts are “woke distractions.”

Lederer, the second full-time civilian in the position, wrote in a staff memo that it had “become clear that my philosophy of leadership, and my understanding of the value and mission of Stars and Stripes, differ in fundamental ways from the direction the leadership of the Department of Defense has for the organization.”

In April, the Pentagon fired Jacqueline Smith, ombudsman for the newspaper, whose job had been to safeguard editorial independence.

State officials announced the outbreak earlier this week, saying they documented more than three dozen cases in Minnesota and Wisconsin. On Friday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the agency is aware of 55 cases nationally, including four people who have been hospitalized.

The CDC said cases are also reported in Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, North Dakota, South Dakota and Washington.

Of 34 sick people interviewed, 26 reported eating alfalfa sprouts, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Food poisoning outbreaks tend to be defined by one type of germ, but this outbreak involves people with salmonella and different strains of E. coli.

Shiga toxin-producing E. coli — or STEC — can cause stomach cramps and bloody diarrhea. Infections can lead to a severe complication that involves acute kidney failure.

Salmonella poisoning can cause diarrhea, fever, severe vomiting, dehydration and stomach cramps.

Officials are linking cases to alfalfa sprouts produced by Everything Sprouts, a Minnesota grower, and sold under the Calco and Everything Sprouts brands to restaurants and grocery stores. The company has yet to issue a recall, the FDA said.

Last year, the FDA sent a warning letter to Everything Sprouts, saying inspections the year before identified several points of concern, including a leaking roof that was dropping water onto bean sprouts and workers' smocks.

The Associated Press left messages for Everything Sprouts seeking comment.

___

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.

Miami police said officers responded to a report of a driver striking a pedestrian and then crashing into a wall.

An arrest report states that officers found a vehicle crashed into the side of a building at 4111 Southwest Fourth St. They said tire marks indicated the vehicle traveled over the sidewalk, through the grass, struck a small tree and then collided with the building.

Witnesses told police that the driver drove into the grass toward the building, exited the vehicle and struck the victim, who was on the ground, with multiple punches to the face, according to the report.

The report states that at least one witness told police the driver intentionally drove into the victim before the crashed into the wall.

Other witnesses said the victim then ran south in an attempt to flee, and the driver chased him toward apartment buildings, according to the report.

Officers later located both men near the 400 block of Southwest 42nd Avenue.

Police said the suspect, Ramon Antonio Osorio, matched the descriptions provided by witnesses.

They also confirmed that the victim was bleeding heavily from the mouth, had bruising to both elbows, and possible internal head and body injuries.

Miami Fire Rescue medics transported him to Coral Gables Hospital for treatment, according to the report.

After being read his Miranda rights, Osorio told officers that the victim was his friend and that they had been asleep in his vehicle, according to police.

Osorio said after waking up in his vehicle, he discovered that the victim and money from his crossbody bag were gone, according to the report.

Osorio, who is listed as homeless in his arrest report, told police he later found the victim counting a large amount of money on a sidewalk and became upset. He also admitted to repeatedly punching the victim in the face, the report states.

When asked whether he struck the victim with the vehicle or how the vehicle crashed into the building, Osorio invoked his rights and declined to answer further questions, according to police.

Police said a witness identified Osorio during a live show-up. They said at least one witness provided video footage that showed Osorio striking the victim while he was on the ground.

Osorio was taken into custody and transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital for medical clearance before being taken to jail.

Jail records show Osorio is facing one count of aggravated battery.

As of Friday, he was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. His bond was listed as “to be set.”

Rocha Moya anunció su regreso a la gobernación en un mensaje en su cuenta de X en el que sostuvo que la Fiscalía General de México indicó que “no existen los mínimos elementos de prueba que sustenten nuestra participación en conducta penal alguna, o sea, no he cometido ningún delito”.

El proceso contra el gobernador de Sinaloa desató una fuerte controversia en México que afectó al partido gobernante Morena y a la presidenta Claudia Sheinbaum, quien salió en defensa de Rocha Moya y señaló a Estados Unidos de interferir en los asuntos internos de México.

“Hoy regreso al ejercicio de mi responsabilidad como gobernador de Sinaloa con la frente limpia y en alto y con la fuerza de la verdad de nuestro lado”, añadió el dirigente oficialista al asegurar que las “acusaciones falsas” que le hicieron tenían “motivaciones políticas e injerencistas de la ultraderecha nacional y extranjera”.

La fiscalía de Nueva York hizo pública a fines de abril una acusación por tráfico de drogas y tenencia ilícita de armas contra Rocha Moya y otros nueve funcionarios mexicanos entre los que se incluyen el alcalde de la ciudad de Culiacán —que también se separó temporalmente del cargo—, un senador oficialista, un fiscal y el exsecretario de Seguridad de Sinaloa, Gerardo Mérida Sánchez, quien semanas después se entregó a las autoridades estadounidenses.

En la acusación se señaló a los 10 funcionarios activos y retirados de ayudar al Cártel de Sinaloa a introducir fentanilo, heroína, cocaína y metanfetamina a Estados Unidos.

La Fiscalía General de México refutó la solicitud de detención de los 10 funcionarios y pidió a Estados Unidos la entrega de pruebas, que hasta el momento no se ha concretado.

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Online jail records show Fiske Evariste Johnson, 57, was taken into custody by U.S. marshals on a bank robbery charge.

According to FBI Special Agent Willie Creech, the robbery occurred at about 4:20 p.m. on Aug. 13 at a Truist bank branch, located at 501 E. Las Olas Blvd.

Creech said the suspect implied that he had a gun on him before demanding money from a bank employee.

No injuries were reported.

Creech declined to confirm the amount of money taken during the robbery.

As of Friday afternoon, Johnson was being held at the Broward County Main Jail without bond.

Los registros de la cárcel en internet muestran que Fiske Evariste Johnson, de 57 años, fue detenido por alguaciles federales por un cargo de robo a banco.

Según el agente especial del FBI Willie Creech, el robo ocurrió alrededor de las 4:20 p.m. del 13 de agosto en una sucursal del banco Truist, ubicada en 501 E. Las Olas Blvd.

Creech dijo que el sospechoso insinuó que tenía un arma antes de exigir dinero a un empleado del banco.

No se reportaron personas heridas.

Creech se negó a confirmar la cantidad de dinero robada durante el asalto.

Hasta la tarde del viernes, Johnson permanecía detenido en la cárcel principal del condado Broward sin derecho a fianza.

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Gutierrez, 32, had images showing the sex abuse of both boys and girls who appeared to be as young as 4 years old and as old as 8 years old, according to the MDSO detective’s arrest report.

Gutierrez “stated he created a Google account with the intent of obtaining content for pleasure,” and added that he focused on the images of child sex abuse “out of curiosity,” a detective wrote, according to the arrest report.

Gutierrez, who works as a barber, told detectives that he was able to get the images from a chat group on WhatsApp, according to the arrest report.

Gutierrez told detectives that he deleted the images after “he received a notification from Google that his account was flagged and shut down,” according to the arrest report.

Deputies arrested Gutierrez at 10:40 a.m. on Thursday at the apartment, according to the report. Corrections booked him at 4:05 p.m. at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, according to inmate records.

Gutierrez faced six counts of possession of images depicting the sexual performance by a child. His bond was $45,000.

Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Jason Bloch was set to preside over the case.

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

Read the arrest report’s narrative:

Warning: This report could be triggering for survivors of sexual assault

The temporary order came hours before lower-court rulings would have forced a halt to aboveground construction of the project because Trump didn't get congressional approval.

It will remain in place until the Supreme Court issues a more durable decision, though the one-page document does not detail Roberts' reasoning or indicate when another ruling will be handed down. Roberts signed the order because he oversees emergency appeals of cases filed in the capital.

Ballroom case tests the limits of presidential power

The case is coming before the nation’s highest court as Trump, a Republican, exercises unparalleled assertions of presidential power and increasingly seeks to mold the capital in his own image.

The administration has argued that the president has total authority to renovate the White House and other federal buildings as he sees fit and that the ballroom project must be completed due to national security concerns.

When Trump first announced the plans for a new ballroom, he did not emphasize national security. He said the project would be funded by private donations, including from himself.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation argues that Trump has no unilateral authority to undertake the work, which has included demolishing the East Wing. Lawyers for the preservation group accused the White House of trying to “outrun the courts” by accelerating construction.

A spokesperson for the trust said Friday that the order from Roberts is not a final decision and the group is awaiting further action. The full Supreme Court will likely weigh in next on whether construction can continue for the potentially long duration of the lawsuit.

Trump said his administration is grateful for Friday's decision, writing in a social media post that the project is “under budget and ahead of schedule.”

While litigation plays out, the ballroom is going up quickly

The Trump administration says 65% of the work has already been completed on the planned 90,000-square-foot (8,400-square-meter) ballroom, where the East Wing stood before the president ordered its demolition.

Crews are working 20 hours a day, seven days a week, on the project, where about $200 million in private donations has been spent or committed, according to court documents filed by the Justice Department.

The work has proceeded against the backdrop of the litigation winding through the courts.

In April, a district court judge ordered a stop to the aboveground construction of the planned ballroom. That ruling was briefly suspended, then upheld by an appeals court panel. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington allowed work to continue only belowground on bunkers and military installations. Leon was nominated by President George W. Bush, a Republican.

Leon's decision was upheld by an appeals court panel, as two judges appointed by Democratic presidents found the project was for Congress to decide and “not a matter for Executive self-help.” A third judge, appointed by Trump, found that the preservationist group challenging the project had no legal standing to sue.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer picked up on that argument, calling the decision halting the work “extraordinary and unlawful.” He said the completion of the project was “vitally required by national security.”

The Trump administration has scored a series of victories on the Supreme Court's emergency docket, though the justices have ruled against some of the president’s signature policies after fuller review.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.

The U.S. carmaker is recalling about 2.98 million China-made and imported EVs including Model 3, Model Y, Model X and Model S over door handle safety risks, according to China’s State Administration for Market Regulation.

The recall, the largest this year according to Chinese media, comes a few months after Chinese authorities said in February that starting next year, it would be banning hidden car door handles that are commonly seen on Tesla electric vehicles and many Chinese EV models.

China has stepped up scrutiny recently on hidden, or flush, car door handles following EV accidents in the country and elsewhere, in which cars’ hidden electronic doors failed and trapped people inside.

In a notice on the Chinese regulator’s website, it cited safety risk. In extreme situations, such as a severe collision that causes an electrical system failure, the car handles could hinder car users from quickly opening the doors to escape, or prevent rescuers outside the car from gaining access, the notice said.

Tesla will perform software updates on the vehicles to mitigate risks, the notice added. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.

Xiaomi, the Beijing-based Chinese technology giant, is recalling more than 390,000 vehicles. Hangzhou-based Leapmotor is recalling over 370,000 cars. Other Chinese carmakers, including Geely and XPENG are also recalling some vehicles.

The reasons given in each case were similar, mostly relating to issues with their car door handles.

A report published by the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of China’s ruling Communist Party, said the large-scale recall “serves as a unified safety upgrade” for existing vehicle models ahead of the 2027 implementation of the ban on hidden car door handles.

“For the rapidly evolving NEV (new energy vehicle) industry, competition should be defined not only by the pace of technological innovation but also by the high standards set for safety,” the newspaper said.

____

Fu Ting reported from Washington.

Gutierrez, de 32 años, tenía imágenes que mostraban el abuso sexual de niños y niñas que aparentaban tener entre 4 y 8 años, según el informe de arresto del detective de MDSO.

Gutierrez “declaró que creó una cuenta de Google con la intención de obtener contenido por placer” y agregó que se enfocó en las imágenes de abuso sexual infantil “por curiosidad”, escribió un detective, según el informe de arresto.

Gutierrez, quien trabaja como barbero, dijo a los detectives que pudo obtener las imágenes de un grupo de chat en WhatsApp, según el informe de arresto.

Gutierrez dijo a los detectives que eliminó las imágenes después de que “recibió una notificación de Google de que su cuenta había sido marcada y cerrada”, según el informe de arresto.

Agentes arrestaron a Gutierrez a las 10:40 a.m. del jueves en el apartamento, según el informe. El Departamento Penitenciario lo ingresó a las 4:05 p.m. en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight, según registros de reclusos.

Gutierrez enfrentaba seis cargos de posesión de imágenes que representan la actuación sexual de un menor. Su fianza fue fijada en $45,000 USD.

El juez de circuito del condado Miami-Dade Jason Bloch estaba asignado para presidir el caso.

La editora de asignaciones de Local 10 News Mercedes Cevallos contribuyó a este informe.

In Miami-Dade County, the list of local elections includes a school board seat, judges, and mayoral elections in Palmetto Bay, South Miami, North Miami, and Sunny Isles Beach.

In Broward County, the list of local elections includes five school board seats and mayoral elections in Dania Beach, Davie, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, North Lauderdale, Parkland, Plantation, Tamarac, and Wilton Manors.

In Monroe County, the local elections include Key West, Isla Morada, and Key Colony Beach.

Deadlines to remember

• The deadline to register to vote in the midterm election is Oct. 5.
• The deadline to request a vote-by-mail ballot is Oct. 22.
• Early voting begins on Oct. 24 and ends on Oct. 31.
• General Election Day is Nov. 3
• For information about the general election results reporting timeline, visit this page.

How to be prepared

SEARCH DATABASES: Check that you are registered to vote, confirm your assigned voting precinct, and research your ballot

• Voter information look-up database
• Miami-Dade voting precinct finder
• Broward voting precinct finder
• Monroe voting precinct finder
• Research your ballot: BallotReady database and Vote database

Frequently asked questions

Who can vote?

To be eligible to vote, the applicant for registration has to be a U.S. citizen, a legal resident, at least 18 years old, and not have been adjudicated mentally incapacitated, or a convicted felon without a restoration of rights.

A military member, a military family member, or an overseas citizen can register and request an absentee ballot with the online Federal Post Card Application.

Who can’t vote?

A felony conviction in Florida for murder or a sexual offense makes a person ineligible to vote unless the State Clemency Board restores the right to vote.

How do I know if I am registered to vote?

There is a database online to look up voter information.

Can this be done online?

The voter registration process can be done online. The application requires a Florida driver’s license or identification card, the date when it was issued, and the last four digits of the Social Security Number.

When can one pre-register to vote?

Florida allows 16-year-olds to pre-register, but they won’t be allowed to vote until they are 18 years old.

How can I update my voter registration?

To change the address on the voter information card, the Florida driver’s license or Florida ID has to reflect the change before contacting the supervisor of elections. To request a record update, visit this page.

Can I register by mail and cast a ballot by mail?

Yes, if done on time and there is access to the forms online, a printer, and a post office. In Florida, those eligible are allowed to register to vote or vote by mail.

To vote: U.S. military members, military family members, and overseas citizens can register and request an absentee ballot with the Federal Post Card Application as soon as possible.

If done in Miami-Dade, visit this page. If done in Broward, visit this page. If done in Monroe, visit this page.

To register: Download the form to print, fill out, and mail.

Here are the mailing addresses for Monroe, Broward, and Miami-Dade counties:

BROWARD

Broward County Elections Office

4650 NW 21st Avenue

Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309.

MIAMI-DADE

Miami-Dade County Elections Office

2700 NW 87 Ave.

Miami, Fla., 33172

MONROE

Monroe County Elections Office

530 Whitehead Street #101

Key West, Fla., 33040-6577

What if I forget to sign my vote-by-mail ballot?

In Miami-Dade, sign inside the red box on the back of the vote-by-mail envelope. If you forgot to sign the envelope or the signature does not match, Florida law allows you to submit an affidavit to cure your vote-by-mail ballot. The affidavit must be completed and submitted to the Elections Department along with a copy of your identification by 5 p.m. on the second day after the election.

· Vote-by-Mail Ballot - Signature Cure Affidavit (English)

· Vote-by-Mail Ballot - Signature Cure Affidavit (Español & Kreyòl)

Useful links

• For information about your voter status, visit this page.
• To download the online registration form, visit this page.
• The national 27-page voter registration application with instructions for each state is available here.
• For vote-by-mail ballot information and status lookup, visit this page.
• For more information about federal election guidelines, visit this page.
• For more information about early voting and ballot intake stations, visit this page.

Useful contacts

• For more information from the Florida Division of Elections, call 1-866-308-6739 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday.
• For more information in Broward, call 954-357-7050
• For more information in Miami-Dade, call 305-499-8683
• For more information in Monroe, call 305-292-3416

Who handles the process?

The Supervisor of Elections in the county of residence.

• Alina Garcia in Miami-Dade County
• Joe Scott in Broward County
• Sherri Hodies in Monroe County

Can I register by mail and cast a ballot by mail?

Yes, if done on time and there is access to the forms online, a printer, and a post office. In Florida, those eligible are allowed to register to vote or vote by mail.

To vote: U.S. military members, military family members, and overseas citizens can register and request an absentee ballot with the Federal Post Card Application as soon as possible.

If done in Miami-Dade, visit this page. If done in Broward, visit this page. If done in Monroe, visit this page.

To register: Download the form to print, fill out, and mail.

Here are the mailing addresses for Monroe, Broward, and Miami-Dade counties:

BROWARD

Broward County Elections Office

4650 NW 21st Avenue

Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309.

MIAMI-DADE

Miami-Dade County Elections Office

2700 NW 87 Ave.

Miami, Fla., 33172

MONROE

Monroe County Elections Office

530 Whitehead Street #101

Key West, Fla., 33040-6577

What if I forget to sign my vote-by-mail ballot?

In Miami-Dade, sign inside the red box on the back of the vote-by-mail envelope. If you forgot to sign the envelope or the signature does not match, Florida law allows you to submit an affidavit to cure your vote-by-mail ballot. The affidavit must be completed and submitted to the Elections Department along with a copy of your identification by 5 p.m. on the second day after the election.

· Vote-by-Mail Ballot - Signature Cure Affidavit (English)

· Vote-by-Mail Ballot - Signature Cure Affidavit (Español & Kreyòl)

Useful links

• For information about your voter status, visit this page.
• To download the online registration form, visit this page.
• The national 27-page voter registration application with instructions for each state is available here.
• For vote-by-mail ballot information and status lookup, visit this page.
• For more information about federal election guidelines, visit this page.
• For more information about early voting and ballot intake stations, visit this page.
• To find your U.S. House representative, search this database.
• Database: Candidate listing for the general election in Florida

Useful contacts

• For more information from the Florida Division of Elections, call 1-866-308-6739 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday.
• For more information in Broward, call 954-357-7050
• For more information in Miami-Dade, call 305-499-8683
• For more information in Monroe, call 305-292-3416

Durante la investigación, agentes detuvieron a Zalim Bacchus en la gasolinera Marathon, ubicada en 220 South Dixie Highway, después de encontrar a un hombre herido, según BSO.

Agentes reportaron que Bacchus y la víctima tuvieron “un altercado” antes de la balacera. Personal de Bomberos y Rescate de Pompano Beach también respondió. La víctima requirió hospitalización, según BSO.

El Departamento de Correcciones de Broward ingresó a Bacchus la mañana del viernes en la cárcel principal del condado Broward en Fort Lauderdale, según registros de reclusos.

Bacchus, de Pompano Beach, enfrentaba un cargo de agresión agravada, un delito grave de primer grado, y el juez de circuito del condado Broward Michael Lynch estaba asignado para presidir el caso, según registros judiciales del condado.

Detectives pidieron a cualquier persona que tenga información sobre este u otros casos y que desee permanecer en el anonimato que llame a Crime Stoppers del condado Broward al 954-493-8477.

The ban for Paredes — who grabbed Spain’s Eric Garcia by the throat and pushed Gavi to the ground — ranks with the FIFA sanctions for Uruguay forward Luis Suárez in 2014 as among the most severe in World Cup history.

Argentina defender Nahuel Molina was handed a seven-game ban while Thiago Almada was given a one-game suspension. FIFA imposed fines of $90,000 on Paredes and Molina, and $30,000 for Almada.

The ban for Paredes is effectively a one-year expulsion from the Argentina team as the FIFA calendar for national team schedules includes 10 games through June 2027.

All of those games could be friendlies with no competitive games currently scheduled.

Spain’s Gavi also banned for game vs England

Gavi also was banned for one game, which is a Nations League match for Spain against England at Wembley on Sept. 26.

An Argentina coach, Roberto Ayala, also got a three-game ban and $30,000 fine.

The Argentine Football Association was fined $110,000 for a range of incidents during the World Cup including players carrying a political banner about the Falkland Islands after the semifinal win against England, and discriminatory chants by fans.

AFA also was ordered by FIFA to spend $100,000 on anti-racism projects. Argentina received $34 million in World Cup prize money from FIFA.

Argentina expected to appeal

AFA can appeal the longer sanctions and fines to FIFA, and likely after at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

“The AFA legal department will, in a timely manner, request from FIFA the grounds for the reviewable rulings in order to file appeals with the governing body’s appeal committee, while retaining the future option of appealing to the CAS as a final recourse,” the federation said in a statement.

Suárez and Simunic cases

In 2014, Suárez was banned from all soccer for four months, including for his new club Barcelona, and eight more competition games for Uruguay for biting Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini in a World Cup group stage game in Brazil.

Paredes’ 10-game ban equals that in 2013 for Josip Simunic of Croatia after winning a World Cup qualifying playoff. Simunic used a megaphone to lead fans chanting a slogan used by the country’s pro-Nazi regime during World War II.

The on-field clashes at last month’s final in East Rutherford, New Jersey — which were charged by FIFA as assault cases — came after Argentina lost a testy final to Spain where it was mostly outplayed and barely created a scoring chance.

Spain forward Ferran Torres scored the only goal in the second period of extra time, after Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernandez was sent off.

FIFA disciplinary judges also ordered Argentina to play its next home game in a stadium limited to 50% of capacity. FIFA deferred a second stadium sanction and a $100,000 for probationary periods.

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AP Sports Writers Ken Maguire in London and Carlos Rodriguez in Mexico City contributed to this report

___

See AP’s full soccer coverage here

Los investigadores señalaron que detectives de la Unidad de Homicidios de Tráfico de la BSO acudieron a la intersección de Northeast 49th Street y North Federal Highway, a petición del Departamento de Policía de Lighthouse Point, para investigar el accidente entre un vehículo y un peatón que conducía un scooter.

La investigación preliminar reveló que el conductor del scooter cruzaba la intersección en dirección este cuando fue embestido por un Toyota Corolla gris que circulaba hacia el sur, según indicaron los detectives.

El conductor, Gustavo Méndez, residente de Boca Raton, abandonó el lugar tras el accidente, comunicaron las autoridades.

Informaron que el personal de emergencias médicas de Lighthouse Point Fire Rescue trasladó a la víctima al centro médico Broward Health North, donde posteriormente se confirmó su fallecimiento.

Los detectives indicaron que conforme avanzaba la investigación, localizaron a Méndez y al Toyota Corolla, por lo que procedieron al arresto en Boca Raton.

No se divulgó información adicional sobre la víctima en virtud de la Ley Marsy.

Las autoridades dijeron que la investigación sigue en curso.

U.S. District Court Judge Nusrat Choudhury, in her Thursday decision, concluded that Michael Jeffries “clearly possesses a rational and factual understanding of the proceedings” and is a “reasonably intelligent person and skilled communicator” following his stay at a federal prison hospital in Butner, North Carolina.

The federal judge on Long Island, New York, said she reviewed testimony and written reports from medical experts and listened to hours of phone calls Jeffries made to his romantic partner, lawyers and others while in custody.

“His presentation and responses in evaluations following his commitment to Butner and his phone calls show that he understands the structure of the criminal legal system, courtroom procedures, the functions of the various participants, the nature and purpose of the proceedings, and key legal concepts,” Choudhury wrote.

Jeffries’ lawyer declined to comment.

“We do not comment on the Judge’s rulings,” Brian Bieber wrote in an email. “The case, and all related issues, will be tried inside the courtroom – not in the media.”

Jeffries, 82, is currently free on bond. He’s slated to go on trial in late October, alongside two co-defendants, his partner Matthew Smith and staffer James Jacobson. A pretrial hearing is slated for next Thursday.

Jeffries’ lawyers had argued that he required around-the-clock care to deal with the effects of Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy body dementia and a traumatic brain injury. They had medical experts testify in court that Jeffries’ cognitive issues were “progressive and incurable” and that he would not “regain his competency.”

That prompted Choudhury to order Jeffries to be hospitalized to see if his mental condition would improve. After spending about four months at Butner, federal prison officials in December deemed Jeffries mentally fit to stand trial.

Jeffries, Smith and Jacobson have pleaded not guilty to federal charges, including sex trafficking and interstate prostitution.

Prosecutors say the three used the promise of modeling jobs to lure men to drug-fueled sex parties in New York City, the Hamptons and other locations. The criminal case echoes sexual misconduct accusations made in a civil case and in the media in recent years.

Jeffries left Abercrombie in 2014 after more than two decades. He’s credited with transforming the New York retailer, originally founded to sell wilderness gear, into a mainstay of teen mall culture in the early 2000s with its preppy youth aesthetic and sexy marketing.

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According to a Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office arrest report, the passenger flew on an American Airlines flight from North Carolina to Miami on June 8.

After arriving at MIA, the passenger accidentally left behind a black leather crossbody bag valued at $260, investigators said.

The bag contained approximately $12,377.90 worth of valuables, including a Cartier Santos watch and AirPods, according to the report.

The passenger told investigators he was initially able to track his AirPods around Miami International Airport for several days using an app before the location stopped updating.

Then, on July 1, he discovered what he believed was his missing Cartier watch listed for sale on DannysVintageWatches.com, a New York-based website, according to the report.

Investigators said the passenger was able to identify the watch because of a distinctive gash on the upper-left portion of its bezel. He provided investigators with several photographs showing him wearing the watch with the same mark.

Detectives then began tracing how the watch ended up for sale.

According to the report, records obtained through an Aug. 7 subpoena showed that Danny’s Vintage Watches purchased the watch from Brickell Watches, a Miami-based broker.

A second subpoena showed Brickell Watches had acquired it from another Miami jewelry broker, Consistent Luxury LLC, the report stated.

According to the report, a representative for Consistent Luxury told investigators the watch had been purchased from Vera Jewelry, located at 12260 SW Eighth St.

The report states that records provided by Vera Jewelry showed the suspect, Carlos Elky Penton, 45, of Hialeah, had sold the watch there on June 11 — three days after the passenger left his bag behind — for $1,500, which investigators described as substantially below its fair market value.

Investigators determined that the suspect worked for Eulen at Miami International Airport. According to the arrest report, Eulen is contracted to service aircraft after passengers get off, and the company serviced the aircraft used for the passenger’s flight on June 8.

Deputies located Penton Thursday behind a residence in Hialeah and took him into custody.

After waiving his Miranda rights, the suspect told investigators he was not working on the day the bag went missing but said another Eulen employee had given him the watch, according to the report.

Investigators said he acknowledged that the watch did not belong to him and that he did not know its owner.

Penton was arrested on a charge of dealing in stolen property and was transported to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center for processing.

As of Friday afternoon, Penton remained held at TGK on a $7,500 bond.

It’s unclear whether the watch was ever returned to the victim.

Según un informe de arresto de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade, el pasajero viajó en un vuelo de American Airlines desde Carolina del Norte a Miami el 8 de junio.

Después de llegar a MIA, el pasajero dejó accidentalmente una bolsa cruzada de cuero negro valorada en $260 USD, dijeron los investigadores.

La bolsa contenía aproximadamente $12,377.90 USD en objetos de valor, incluidos un reloj Cartier Santos y unos AirPods, según el informe.

El pasajero dijo a los investigadores que inicialmente pudo rastrear sus AirPods alrededor del Aeropuerto Internacional de Miami durante varios días mediante una aplicación antes de que la ubicación dejara de actualizarse.

Luego, el 1 de julio, descubrió lo que creía que era su reloj Cartier desaparecido anunciado a la venta en DannysVintageWatches.com, un sitio web con sede en Nueva York, según el informe.

Los investigadores dijeron que el pasajero pudo identificar el reloj debido a una marca distintiva en la parte superior izquierda de su bisel. Proporcionó a los investigadores varias fotografías que lo mostraban usando el reloj con la misma marca.

Los detectives comenzaron entonces a rastrear cómo el reloj terminó a la venta.

Según el informe, los registros obtenidos mediante una citación del 7 de agosto mostraron que Danny’s Vintage Watches compró el reloj a Brickell Watches, un intermediario con sede en Miami.

Una segunda citación mostró que Brickell Watches lo había adquirido de otro intermediario de joyería de Miami, Consistent Luxury LLC, indicó el informe.

Según el informe, un representante de Consistent Luxury dijo a los investigadores que el reloj había sido comprado a Vera Jewelry, ubicada en 12260 SW Eighth St.

El informe señala que los registros proporcionados por Vera Jewelry mostraron que el sospechoso, Carlos Elky Penton, de 45 años y residente de Hialeah, había vendido el reloj allí el 11 de junio, tres días después de que el pasajero dejara su bolsa, por $1,500 USD, una cantidad que los investigadores describieron como sustancialmente inferior a su valor justo de mercado.

Los investigadores determinaron que el sospechoso trabajaba para Eulen en el Aeropuerto Internacional de Miami. Según el informe de arresto, Eulen tiene un contrato para prestar servicio a las aeronaves después de que los pasajeros desembarcan, y la compañía prestó servicio a la aeronave utilizada para el vuelo del pasajero el 8 de junio.

Agentes localizaron a Penton el jueves detrás de una residencia en Hialeah y lo detuvieron.

Después de renunciar a sus derechos Miranda, el sospechoso dijo a los investigadores que no estaba trabajando el día en que desapareció la bolsa, pero afirmó que otro empleado de Eulen le había dado el reloj, según el informe.

Los investigadores dijeron que reconoció que el reloj no le pertenecía y que no conocía a su propietario.

Penton fue arrestado por un cargo de tráfico de propiedad robada y fue trasladado al Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight para ser procesado.

Hasta la tarde del viernes, Penton permanecía detenido en TGK con una fianza de $7,500 USD.

No está claro si el reloj fue devuelto alguna vez a la víctima.

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Investigators said BSO Traffic Homicide Unit detectives responded to the intersection of Northeast 49th Street and North Federal Highway at the request of the Lighthouse Point Police Department to investigate the crash involving a vehicle and a pedestrian riding a scooter.

The preliminary investigation found the scooter rider was crossing eastbound through the intersection when he was struck by a gray Toyota Corolla traveling southbound, according to detectives.

The driver, Gustavo Mendez, of Boca Raton, left the scene after the crash, authorities said.

They said Lighthouse Point Fire Rescue medics transported the victim to Broward Health North Medical Center, where he was later pronounced dead.

Detectives said that as the investigation continued, they located Mendez and the Toyota Corolla in Boca Raton.

Jail records show Mendez was arrested on Thursday on a charge of failure to stop and/or remain at the scene of a crash involving death.

As of Friday afternoon, he was being held at the Broward County Main Jail on a $50,000 bond. A judge also ordered him to surrender his passport, prohibited him from driving or leaving Broward or Palm Beach counties, and required him to wear a GPS monitor.

Additional information about the victim was withheld under Marsy’s Law.

She died Thursday at her home in Kent, Connecticut, Robert Johnson, manager of the property, told The Associated Press. The cause of her death was not disclosed. Johnson said she will be buried next to her late husband at Arlington National Cemetery at a later date.

The daughter of a New York City lawyer, she met Henry Kissinger while working for New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller. The couple wed in 1974.

She was described by one profiler as a brainy, Blass-bedecked blonde. She was often seen at high fashion openings and was a strong presence on the New York philanthropy scene.

“Nancy Kissinger can pick up the phone and get right through to the CEO. Nobody keeps her waiting,” philanthropist Judy Peabody said after chairing a successful hospital charity event in 1989.

Michael Bloomberg — the billionaire founder of the Bloomberg financial-news empire, former New York City mayor and a friend of the Kissingers — said in a social media post that Nancy Kissinger “was a powerhouse of ideas and insights that she put to work throughout her life in government and philanthropy — and as Henry’s most valued and trusted advisor.”

He added, “She was the ultimate diplomat — as wise as she was discreet — and I know how completely Henry admired and loved her. Diana and I were fortunate to call her a dear friend, and to see their extraordinary partnership in action over the decades. We will miss her greatly.”

Nancy Kissinger made headlines in 1982 when she tried to throttle a woman who harassed her and her husband with insulting questions at Newark Airport. The couple was going to Boston, where Henry Kissinger was to undergo bypass surgery.

The woman, a leafleter for a group affiliated with politician Lyndon LaRouche, accused Nancy Kissinger of choking both her throat and her free-speech rights. Nancy Kissinger said she only wanted to protect her husband from upset.

A judge acquitted Nancy Kissinger of assault and called her behavior “a spontaneous and somewhat human reaction to an offensive question.”

The Kissingers met in the mid-1960s when he was a consultant for Rockefeller and she was on the staff of Rockefeller's Commission on Critical Choices for America.

Henry Kissinger had joined the Nixon administration and was secretary of state when he and the former Nancy Sharon Maginnes married on March 30, 1974, in a civil ceremony in Arlington, Virginia.

After leaving Washington, they returned to New York and lived in homes in Manhattan and Kent, Connecticut.

The daughter of an Episcopalian Park Avenue lawyer, Nancy Kissinger grew up with two brothers and a horse on an estate in White Plains.

She attended Good Counsel Academy, a Catholic girls school in White Plains, and the exclusive Master's School in Dobbs Ferry, from which she graduated in 1951. She returned to the school to teach history for two years after graduating from Mount Holyoke in 1955.

Graduate studies at the University of California at Berkeley followed before she went to work for Rockefeller.

The letter, signed by at least two former staffers from Kennedy's 2024 presidential campaign, marks the first major MAHA movement mobilization over fossil fuels and the latest in a series of rifts between the diverse group of activists and the Trump administration over environmental policy.

The letter to Trump, Kennedy and various other Cabinet officials, first obtained by The Associated Press, laments a 2025 executive order that aimed to boost coal to power data centers over pollution concerns and asks the administration to consider renewable options, including solar and geothermal energy.

“We understand the importance of American leadership in artificial intelligence, national security, innovation, and economic growth,” the letter reads. “But American AI leadership should not come at the cost of a more toxic burden for American children.”

In response, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers noted that greenhouse gas emissions dropped to a 30-year low during Trump's first term and said Trump “was given a mandate to roll back the radical climate policies that are burning a hole through taxpayers' wallets.”

The agencies receiving the letter didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Prominent MAHA figures behind the letter include Zen Honeycutt, a former Kennedy campaign staffer and founder of the advocacy group Moms Across America, and Charles Eisenstein, a former speechwriter on Kennedy's campaign. Honeycutt said she asked the Kennedy-aligned political action committee MAHA Action to sign onto the letter but did not receive a reply.

Although it may not reflect the views of all MAHA activists, the new line of criticism against one of the administration’s signature policies less than three months before November’s midterm elections could present another challenge for Republicans as they seek to win over the voting bloc in key races.

As health secretary, Kennedy has carried out several policy changes that cater to the MAHA movement, including attempting to scale back childhood vaccine recommendations, a central priority for some activists. He also has sought to remove artificial dyes from food and encouraged Americans to have healthy diets free of ultraprocessed foods.

But many in the MAHA movement, which Trump credits with helping him win back the White House two years ago, say they have grown frustrated with the administration over its embrace of pesticides such as glyphosate and its deregulatory environmental agenda. Some have said they plan to vote on issues over party this fall, raising the political stakes of their increasingly public tensions with the Republican administration.

As president, Trump has enthusiastically embraced what he calls “big, beautiful coal” despite outcry from environmentalists about planet-warming greenhouse gases and toxic chemicals released by coal-fired power plants.

His administration has moved to reverse tighter Biden-era standards on greenhouse gas emissions, which, in addition to their climate impacts, can harm brain development in children and increase rates of heart attacks in adults.

He also has been a vocal advocate for data centers, which power artificial intelligence and cloud computing, framing them as a necessary component of winning the AI race against China.

“If I were the mayor of a town or the governor of a state, and I had a chance to get a big plant in, an AI plant or a data center,” Trump said this week, “I would absolutely want it because the jobs are enormous and the money paid, the taxes paid, are just enormous.”

Data centers have become a political flashpoint in this year's elections. Voters across the political spectrum have criticized them for jacking up electricity bills, draining water supplies, and creating unhealthy amounts of air and noise pollution.

Friday's letter asks the administration to require transparent review of data center location and power sourcing decisions, and respect existing environmental review requirements in the permitting process.

Honeycutt said that after Trump's executive order last year, she researched the impact of coal ash on communities and was disturbed by what she found. She said she was also concerned about other aspects of data centers, including their land use and their effects on the people living near them.

“The data center push has been an overwhelmingly negative impact on our communities, and there are many in the MAHA movement that are extremely disappointed about that,” she said. “We vote for those who put health and safety first.”

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Associated Press writer Michael Phillis in Washington contributed to this report.

Con los primeros rayos del sol los equipos con gigantescos mecheros empezaron a inflar los 20 globos que llegaron de México y Brasil más los de Ecuador, que al elevarse se recortaban en el cielo azul profundo y en las cercanas montañas de los Andes.

El denominado Festival del Globo - Mitad del Mundo 2026 se realiza entre el 20 y 23 de agosto en las inmediaciones de ese pueblo ubicado apenas cuatro kilómetros al norte de la capital ecuatoriana.

“Estamos desde muy temprano”, dijo a The Associated Press Silvia Camilla, una turista colombiana que aseguró que el festival "está muy bonito, los globos están muy grandes y está todo muy organizado”.

En ese icónico lugar, al que miles de turistas llegan a diario, los visitantes pueden poner un pie en el Hemisferio Norte y otro en el Hemisferio Sur al posarse en el monumento a la Mitad del Mundo.

Esta es que quinta edición del festival, organizado por la gobernación de Pichincha.

Aprovechando las condiciones del clima más bien frío, ideal para elevar los globos, los pilotos ascendieron los dirigibles mientras la gente hacía fila para subir a las canastillas y contemplar el paisaje desde lo alto.

“Me encanta volar globos y que me inviten a volar en la mitad del mundo, latitud cero”, dijo a AP uno de los pilotos que llegó a Ecuador para el festival, el mexicano Cristian Valdés, mientras los globos pasaban en unos pocos minutos entre uno y otro hemisferio.

The person spoke Friday to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because details of the agreement — the second sale in the NBA this month — were not being publicized.

The Los Angeles Lakers were flipped by Mark Walter to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner at a $12.5 billion valuation in a deal struck last week.

Lore, a New York e-commerce entrepreneur, and partner Alex Rodriguez, the former Major League Baseball star, bought the NBA and WNBA clubs from Minnesota businessman Glen Taylor. That complicated and contentious process lasted more than four years until the $1.5 billion sale got league approval in June 2025.

Lore will retain a limited share and essentially swap roles with Stad, who is the founder of Dragoneer Investment group, a California-based firm focused on technology companies. Rodriguez will remain as a co-owner and continue as the most publicly visible owner of the pro basketball franchises.

Lore's decision to sell his majority stake stems from his focus on his food delivery startup Wonder, according to a second person with knowledge of the situation, speaking on condition of anonymity to the AP because those details were not being made public. Lore has started the process of taking Wonder public.

Lore, Rodriguez and Stad issued a joint statement Friday expressing their commitment to the current leadership in the organization including chief executive officer Matt Caldwell, Timberwolves president of basketball operations Tim Connelly, Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch, and Lynx president of basketball operations and head coach Cheryl Reeve.

“We have been working together for years with a shared goal of building the Timberwolves and Lynx into the best organization in basketball on and off the floor. Our priority is and always will be championships,” the owners said. “Our new agreement, pending league approval, is an evolution of the partnership we have built together and strengthening of our commitment to our team and our culture.”

The two teams currently play at Target Center, which opened in 1990 for the second season of the Timberwolves after they were granted an expansion franchise. Lore and Rodriguez have previously pledged a desire to keeping the teams in downtown Minneapolis, eventually in a new arena.

The Lynx were added to the WNBA as an expansion club in 1999 and have won four championships, with a healthy lead on the rest of the league this season behind star Napheesa Collier and rookie Olivia Miles.

The Timberwolves have never won a title or reached the NBA Finals, with an eight-year run of making the playoffs behind star forward Kevin Garnett their only period of sustained success until recently.

Since drafting Anthony Edwards with the first overall pick in the 2020 draft, hiring Finch in 2021 and Connelly in 2022, the Timberwolves have grown into one of the league's best teams. They reached the Western Conference Finals in 2024 and 2025 and were ousted in the second round by the San Antonio Spurs last season. They acquired point guard LaMelo Ball in one of the NBA's biggest summer trades.

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An earlier version of this story incorrectly spelled Marc Stad's last name.

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AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds contributed.

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See AP’s full NBA coverage here

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL) just came out with their economic performance indicators for 2026. It predicts that Cuba’s economy will slow down 10.3%, which is the worse performance in all of Latin America.

How much more will the Cuban people be able to take is anybody’s guess.

Aug. 20: Cuba’s president says health system on verge of total collapse

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel admitted earlier this week that the health system, one of the so-called “great accomplishments” of the Cuban revolution, is on the verge of total collapse. There are thousands of Cubans on the island waiting for surgeries that cannot be performed due to the lack of doctors, medicines, equipment and poor hospital conditions.

For years, Cuba has been sending medical brigades around the world to help pay-off their debt and export the ideals of their revolution. The U.S. government has accused Cuba of human trafficking for these actions.

Aug. 18: Trump’s Cuba strategy: Is there really a plan?

Does the Trump administration really have a plan for Cuba?

After months of rhetorical back-and-forth, you begin to wonder whether the Trump administration really knows what to do with Cuba. We keep hearing that Secretary of State Marco Rubio was given the responsibility to deal with Cuba and the rest of Latin America, which he knows extremely well. But from what I hear, White House senior staff keeps getting in the way.

Continuing to sanction operations and individuals in Cuba will not bring down the government. Now we hear from Secretary Rubio and members of our Cuban-American congressional delegation that the target date has been moved back, and they hope that by 2029, changes in Cuba will have taken place, which is absolutely ridiculous.

Aug. 14: Cuba turns to global investors as US sanctions and property claims raise risks

The Cuban government has realized that efforts to attract investment from U.S. and Cuban-American businesses have largely failed because of the many sanctions imposed by the United States and the fact that the risks still outweigh the opportunities.

However, the Cuban government is trying very hard to attract companies from around the world to take over many operations and businesses in Cuba. With many European hoteliers and other companies having recently left Cuba, it will still be a challenge to attract new investors.

One thing these companies should keep in mind before starting operations in Cuba is that they could be operating in properties that were confiscated by the Cuban government in the early 1960s. They could potentially face legal challenges in the future as a result.

For American companies alone, there are 5,913 businesses and properties that were confiscated and registered with the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

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Aug. 13: Fidel Castro’s 100th birthday prompts reflection on his legacy in Cuba

Thursday marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Fidel Castro, a man whose narcissistic personality took control of Cuba after overthrowing Fulgencio Batista on Jan. 1, 1959. He made promises to the Cuban people that he later betrayed for his own selfish ambitions and thirst for power.

At his trial on Oct. 16, 1953, following the failed attack on the Moncada military barracks in Santiago de Cuba, he famously said, “History will absolve me.”

In the end, history will judge him as a ruthless dictator who destroyed Cuba, impoverished its people and inflicted tremendous suffering on an entire nation.

Aug. 12: Cuba poses a tough foreign policy challenge for Rubio

“Who is on first, what is on second, I don’t know is on third.”

The famous comedy routine by Abbott and Costello can be compared to the Trump administration’s foreign policy strategies these days. Diplomatic negotiations are complex and complicated, especially when dealing with countries, governments, and individuals with whom the United States has not had good relationships.

Reliable sources tell me there are tremendous differences between the staffs at the White House and the Department of State over how to handle negotiations involving Ukraine, Russia, Israel-Gaza, Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba. It does not help when those negotiating on behalf of the United States have limited to no diplomatic experience.

For now, let’s stay within the area of expertise: Cuba. While President Trump thinks Cuba can be resolved in two months, Secretary of State Marco Rubio knows very well, as does his senior staff, that negotiating with Cuba is not easy.

The Cuban government is willing to continue introducing cosmetic changes to its moribund economy without relinquishing political control. The United States can continue to sanction everyone on the island, and the Cuban government could not care less. All the while, the people of Cuba continue to suffer tremendous hardships. Yet the people are unlikely to turn against the government. The consequence of doing so can mean spending years in jail.

Meanwhile, in Miami, the guessing game continues over who will replace Raúl Castro when he dies, along with preparations for possible transition plans for Cuba. A transition to a democratic system of government in Cuba will take time. A civil society cannot be built overnight. It is also important to remember that Cuba did not have a democratic government before 1959.

For Rubio, expectations from the Cuban American community are high. Yet most in the community understand that it will not be easy to get the Cuban government to make political changes short of a U.S. military invasion. However, Rubio needs a win, especially if he is considering another presidential run. The failures of the Trump administration’s foreign policies around the world could affect Rubio’s future presidential campaign.

So, what will be Rubio’s next step on Cuba? The clock is ticking.

Aug. 10: Will the cat catch the mouse this time?

While U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio continues to put pressure on the Cuban government to change, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel went on Cuban television this past weekend and announced to the Cuban people that the government was making major “transformational changes” to the economy.

Díaz-Canel also told the Cuban people that it would take time and patience -- two things the Cuban people do not have anymore. Díaz-Canel went on to say that the benefits of these changes will begin to show by 2029.

Sources in Washington, D.C. have told me that the Trump administration is looking to see if there is someone in the Cuban government, like Delcy Rodriguez in Venezuela, to hand over Raul Castro or even take over the current government and be willing to negotiate with the U.S.

The Miami Herald reported this weekend that General Lazaro Alberto Alvarez Casas, currently the Cuban Minister of the Interior, may be acceptable to the U.S. General Casas is considered a hardliner and therefore unlikely to break with the Cuban leadership.

As I have said before, the case of Venezuela is quite different than Cuba. While Raul Castro is alive, I believe the Cuban government will continue in power and make promises to the Cuban people they cannot keep.

Aug. 8: Cuban opposition leader says Cuba’s transformation must include those on the island

According to Cuban opposition leader Jose Daniel Ferrer, any plans to transform Cuba must include Cubans on the island.

But do Cubans on the island have the capacity and capabilities to participate in such a process? After living for almost 68 years under a totalitarian system that has shaped the population’s personal values and attitudes, it could take time not only to change it but, more importantly, to sustain those changes.

Democracies are not built in one day. It will take time and patience. Let’s also remember that before the Cuban Revolution, Cuba had a dictatorship under Batista.

Aug 6: US announces new set of economic sanctions against Cuba; 2 of Cuba’s top generals also sanctioned

The U.S. State Department announced a new set of economic sanctions against Cuba on Thursday. At the same time, two of Cuba’s top generals were also sanctioned, Alvaro Lopez Miera, Minister of Defense; and General Roberto Sotolongo, head of the armed forces.

Aug. 5: CIA Task Force on Cuba created, per report

The New York Times has reported the creation of a CIA Task Force on Cuba with the purpose of putting additional pressure on the Cuban government to make political and economic changes to their system.

This news will probably be received by Cuba as an additional threat by the U.S.

Aug. 5: Cuban president confirms ongoing conservations between Havana, US

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel confirmed today that there are ongoing conversations between Havana and DC for the purpose of avoiding a military confrontation and trying to find solutions to the issues between both nations.

The Cuban government understands that they are running out of options and most likely will need to reach an agreement with the U.S. Will it include regime change?

Aug. 3 update: Rubio speaks about Cuba’s ongoing espionage activities in the US

This past weekend, in an interview with Fox News, U.S. Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio spoke about Cuba’s ongoing espionage activities in the U.S.

Rubio went on to say that Cuban spies continue to infiltrate the U.S. government, financial institutions, organizations, and academic institutions. Rubio claimed that Cuba continues to be a national security threat to the U.S.

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.

“I was at the hospital. I was there all day, hoping, praying, hoping for a turnaround,” Busch said in an interview on NBC’s “Today” show on Friday.

“I said, ‘I got you man. Come on, I got you. I got you. Come on, be strong,’” an emotional Busch added, before a brief pause. “It just wasn’t fair.”

The interview marked Busch’s first comments since Kyle Busch died on May 21 after severe pneumonia progressed into sepsis, resulting in rapid and overwhelming complications. Busch’s death at the age of 41 devastated the racing community and one of NASCAR’s most accomplished families. The borthers were born in Las Vegas.

Kyle Busch won Cup Series championships in 2015 and 2019 for Joe Gibbs Racing, and holds the record in winning 234 combined races across NASCAR’s top three national series. His older brother was a Cup champion in 2004 and inducted this year into the Hall of Fame.

In the interview, Busch outlined how his brother became increasingly ill while practicing in a simulator on May 20. Asked by his crew chief whether he was OK, Busch responded no and he was taken to a hospital by ambulance.

Kyle Busch initially believed he was dealing with a sinus cold while racing at Watkins Glen, New York, on May 10. He continued competing, including winning a Truck Series race at Dover, Delaware, less than a week before he died. Kurt Busch said their father, Tom Busch, chose not to be at the hospital in order to “remember him the way he wanted to remember him.”

“There is no book, there is no outline on what we’re supposed to do right now,” Kurt Busch said, before recalling the on-track chemistry he had with his brother.

“Him and I were carbon copies of each other. We could speak on track without saying a word,” he said. “I miss the words we never spoke to each other, and the vibe that we had on track.”

Busch said he’s now mentoring his nephew, Kyle’s 11-year-old son Brexton, who has taken up racing.

“He’s a prodigy,” Busch said. “He can be a big start in the world of motorsports. He’s 11, but he’s already racing like an 18-year-old.”

As for his brother’s legacy, Busch said the achievements speak for themselves.

“It’s already there. Winningest driver in NASCAR history in all the series,” Busch said.

“The tenacity that he had. It was every day, 24-7, to help people in the latter part of his career, to be a great father like he was,” he added. “It will all shine as time puts different things in spotlights.”

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See AP’s full auto racing coverage here

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According to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, the shooting was reported just before 10:15 p.m. Wednesday in the 200 block of Southwest First Terrace.

Deputies said they responded to the scene and discovered that a man, later identified as Maurice Wright Jr., 31, had been shot inside an apartment.

He was pronounced dead at the scene by Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue medics.

After Wednesday night’s shooting, Wright’s family members broke down in tears at the crime scene when detectives told them he had died.

According to deputies, the woman who shot Wright was detained for questioning and claimed that she shot him in self-defense while protecting herself from a physical attack.

Detectives said the woman, whose identity has not been released, was released after being questioned.

The woman’s neighbor, Marcelle Thomas, said the woman had been through a difficult relationship with Wright.

Thomas said she had heard Wright was abusive toward the woman and her children.

“What I heard is that the dude was abusing her, abusing the 4-year-old and tried to abuse the 11-year-old,” Thomas said.

According to Thomas, the woman was Wright’s ex, but he found out where she lived.

He said neighbors would hear them fighting inside her apartment.

“So she had to do what she had to to defend her and her daughter, and she did that,” Thomas said.

A maintenance worker at the apartment building told Local 10 that the woman is a “nice girl.”

Thomas said Wright had previously been jailed in connection with the killing of his father.

Local 10 covered that incident in 2022, when Miami-Dade County sheriff’s deputies used an explosive tactical breach to take Wright into custody at a motel.

Wright was accused of killing his father with an assault rifle and was charged with second-degree murder.

After detectives complete their investigation into Wednesday’s shooting, they will present the case to the Broward County State Attorney’s Office for review.

Detectives have not said what led up to the alleged physical attack that preceded the shooting.

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According to police, officers and a Miami-Dade Fire Rescue crew responded to the beach near the 1800 block of South Ocean Drive where medics performed “life-saving measures” on the victim before transporting him to a nearby hospital, where he died.

Police said it appears the victim was diving before he lost consciousness in the water.

Detectives said foul play is not suspected, however the circumstances surrounding the death remain under investigation.

The victim’s identity is being withheld from police as they work to notify his next of kin.

Beef prices have climbed to record highs amid a drop in the number of U.S. cattle, consistent consumer demand and limits on cattle from Mexico, where the animals are facing a flesh-eating pest. The U.S. president has also imposed 50% tariffs on Brazil, a major beef exporter.

Trump remains under pressure to cut costs and address affordability issues ahead of November’s midterms. But ranchers, normally some of the president’s biggest supporters, are enjoying some rare profitable years and worry cheap beef imports will reduce cattle prices — and with it, the incentive to increase herd sizes.

“We all want lower grocery prices, but as I’ve said for months, we cannot do it at the expense of American producers,” Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., said in a statement. “Flooding the market with foreign beef hurts our livestock industry and undermines the long-term solution: growing the U.S. cattle herd to meet demand.”

Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., said in a social media post just hours after Trump's announcement that the president's “heart is in the right place,” but importing beef will “harm our ranching families who feed the nation.”

And Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., said that while he appreciates the administration's focus on grocery prices, “short term policy shifts do not equal long term solutions.”

The deal, Trump said, allows up to 300,000 metric tons of ground beef to be imported into the U.S. for the next 90 days without activating an “out of quota” tariff, which is a tax that goes into effect once a certain quantity of that product enters the country.

The president said on social media that he had committed to ensuring the imported beef would be sold at 25% below current market rates, making it cheaper for American consumers. A White House official said the deal is with foreign beef exporters who have agreed to the discount on beef.

“You don’t put America first by putting U.S. cattle producers last,” U.S. Cattlemen's Association President Justin Tupper said in a statement. “This move will weaken our markets and gamble with food safety in the process.”

The president's announcement and other market interventions sacrifice “long-term stability for short term messaging,” Colin Woodall, CEO of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, said in a statement.

Glynn Tonsor, a professor at Kansas State University who focuses on the cattle and beef industry, said he would like to see more details about the latest deal but that his immediate assessment was that it wouldn't have a big effect on prices.

That’s because 300,000 metric tons amounts to roughly 3% of what Americans eat yearly, he said. “The relative magnitude we are talking about is pretty small.”

David Anderson, professor of agricultural economics at Texas A&M University, said he was skeptical other countries could redirect so much beef to the U.S. in such a short time period.

“Is that even achievable?” he questioned in a phone interview.

The White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a plan that has yet to be finalized, said the beef in question is lean beef trimmings that are used for ground beef production. Trump plans to sign an executive order formalizing the directive within two weeks, the official said. The administration made a push last year to buy more beef from Argentina to try to bring down prices.

The president said Friday that his plan would help grow the U.S. cattle supply, which is the smallest it's been in decades. Some ranchers and experts said the opposite effect was more likely.

“Imports have been a major contributor to the decline in the U.S. cattle inventory,” said Bill Bullard, the CEO of the R-CALF USA, which represents independent cattle producers. “Using more imports today will exacerbate that decline and will prevent herd expansion.”

___

Associated Press writers Sarah Raza in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Sudhin Thanawala in Atlanta contributed to this report.

The shopping mall strikes, plus two other separate Russian attacks in the Mykolaiv and Kharkiv regions, left a total of 21 people dead across Ukraine on Friday, authorities said.

Kryvyi Rih is the hometown of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who described the attack as a double-tap strike, in which an initial wave of drones hit the area, followed by a second wave as rescue workers responded.

“Attacks like these are nothing less than terrorist acts,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media. In a video address several hours later, he said Ukraine would respond to the shopping mall attack.

Oleksandr Hanzha, who heads the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration, said Friday evening that the attack on the mall killed at least 15 people and injured 130, including 23 children.

Kryvyi Rih has been hit multiple times during the more than 4-year-old war, with one of the deadliest occurring in April 2025, when 20 people, including nine children, were killed.

Russia exploits Ukraine’s shortage of defensive systems

Earlier on Friday, a Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s Kharkiv region killed two women, aged 73 and 66, and wounded two others, said regional head Oleh Syniehubov.

Another Russian attack on Friday evening killed four people, including three children, in Ukraine’s southern Mykolaiv region, emergency services said.

Ukraine shot down or suppressed 107 out of 135 drones launched by Russia overnight, according to a statement from Ukraine’s air force on Telegram.

Friday’s attacks came just 24 hours after Russia pounded the capital of Kyiv with scores of missiles and drones in a nighttime aerial attack that killed 16 people.

Large-scale Russian strikes have become a regular occurrence this summer. Just over two weeks ago, a Russian attack on Kyiv and its surrounding region killed 17 people, and nine were killed in the city two days before that. The United Nations said last week that Kyiv was one of the hardest hit cities in July, with at least 54 civilians killed and 202 injured.

Moscow’s forces have recently intensified their ballistic missile attacks on Kyiv, exploiting Ukraine’s chronic shortage of U.S.-made Patriot air defense interceptors, the sole weapon in its arsenal able to shoot down the missiles.

Ukrainian drones hit Russian oil refinery

A Ukrainian drone attack killed one person and wounded four others when a car was struck Friday in Russia’s Belgorod region near the village of Razumnoye, local officials said, adding that two of the injured were in serious condition.

Earlier, Zelenskyy said a separate Ukrainian drone attack hit an oil refinery in Perm, more than 1,600 kilometers (about 995 miles) from his country’s border. Also struck was the Marinovka military airfield in Russia’s Volgograd region, he said.

The Russian online news outlet Astra reported that the Ukrainian drone had set ablaze a Lukoil-operated oil refinery in Perm. Local officials said damage was recorded at an unidentified “industrial facility.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses overnight intercepted 325 Ukrainian drones over 15 Russian regions, as well as Crimea. The peninsula was illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014.

Later Friday, it said its defenses shot down another 211 drones.

Long-range strikes between Russia and Ukraine have escalated as troops continually fail to make significant battlefield progress, analysts say. Troop movements along the roughly 1,250-kilometer (780-mile) front line in eastern and southern Ukraine are severely restricted by large numbers of drones and ground robots that threaten infantry and vehicles.

In the past year, Ukraine has devised and deployed domestically produced long-range drones for strikes deep inside Russia, capturing the attention of governments and defense manufacturers around the world.

Officials in Kyiv aim to make the Russian public feel the war’s consequences and pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin into negotiating a peace settlement. Putin has so far shown no sign he intends to stop the invasion.

___

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

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The transition from a highly structured military career to civilian life was difficult for the married father of five. But with help from a South Florida veterans program, McCartney found a new mission — one that traded his military uniform for turntables and a classroom.

“My name is Scott McCartney. Also known as DJ Smoove The Rough,” he said.

Today, McCartney is sharing his passion for music with the next generation as a professor at Miami Dade College.

A difficult transition from military life

Before becoming DJ Smoove, McCartney spent nearly 30 years in the Coast Guard, with his service taking him around the world.

“I went as far as Australia, Alaska. Many places in the states, Washington D.C., Florida, of course. Miami, here,” he said.

McCartney ultimately retired at the rank of commander.

“I did very well in the Coast Guard,” he said. “I retired as an O5, which is a commander.”

But retirement brought uncertainty. McCartney suddenly found himself without the structure of military life or a full-time salary.

“My family was behind me, but I really had a difficult time,” McCartney said. “I had a hard time.”

Eventually, he realized he needed assistance navigating the transition.

“I realized I needed help,” he said. “I needed help with the transition.”

McCartney found that support through United Way Miami Mission United, which connects veterans and their families with free essential services.

Vanessa Benavides, vice president of community impact for United Way Miami, said McCartney initially came to the organization seeking employment assistance.

“He came to us specifically for employment services,” Benavides said.

The organization helped McCartney strengthen his resume and rebuild his confidence.

“And that helped open doors and opportunities for him,” Benavides said.

From ‘Commander McCartney’ to ‘Professor Smoove’

One of those opportunities led McCartney to Miami Dade College.

There, he created a curriculum that became the first three-credit DJing college course in the nation, which he now teaches.

McCartney’s military background still influences his teaching style.

Student Omar Sanchez Zelaya, who goes by “Meezy Magic,” said McCartney expects his students to be punctual and prepared.

“This is like DJ Boot Camp,” Sanchez Zelaya joked.

McCartney admits it can sometimes be difficult to leave the commander behind when he enters the classroom.

“My wife always tells me, ‘Tone it down, tone it down. Be more Professor Smoove than Commander McCartney,’” he said.

For students like Amanda O’Connor, who goes by “Sirene Clover,” McCartney’s class has helped uncover abilities she didn’t realize she had.

“I didn’t think that I was musically inclined,” O’Connor said. “Turns out that I am, and I learned that through this class.”

Turning the highs and lows into something good

McCartney’s journey has also included a commitment to education.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and two master’s degrees, one in multimedia journalism and another in telecommunications management.

And he isn’t finished.

In September, McCartney is expected to earn his third master’s degree, this time in music production.

After experiencing both the highs and lows that came with leaving the military and building a new career, McCartney now looks back on the journey with gratitude — and a nod to his DJ name.

“It’s also been an enjoyable road,” he said. “And, it’s also been a SMOOVE road. Smoove the Rough.”

For McCartney, a difficult transition ultimately became an opportunity to find a new purpose — using music and education to help his students discover their own.

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La transición de una carrera militar altamente estructurada a la vida civil fue difícil para este padre casado de cinco hijos. Pero con la ayuda de un programa para veteranos del sur de Florida, McCartney encontró una nueva misión: cambiar su uniforme militar por tocadiscos y un aula.

“Me llamo Scott McCartney. También conocido como DJ Smoove The Rough”, dijo.

En la actualidad, McCartney comparte su pasión por la música con la próxima generación como profesor en el Miami Dade College.

Una difícil transición de la vida militar a la vida civil.

Antes de convertirse en DJ Smoove, McCartney pasó casi 30 años en la Guardia Costera, un servicio que le llevó a recorrer el mundo.

“Viajé hasta Australia, Alaska. Muchos lugares en Estados Unidos, Washington D.C., Florida, por supuesto. Miami, aquí”, dijo.

Finalmente, McCartney se retiró con el rango de comandante.

“Me fue muy bien en la Guardia Costera”, dijo. “Me retiré con el rango de O5, que es el de comandante”.

Pero la jubilación trajo consigo incertidumbre. De repente, McCartney se encontró sin la estructura de la vida militar ni un salario a tiempo completo.

“Mi familia me apoyó, pero realmente lo pasé mal”, dijo McCartney. “Lo pasé muy mal”.

Finalmente, se dio cuenta de que necesitaba ayuda para afrontar la transición.

“Me di cuenta de que necesitaba ayuda”, dijo. “Necesitaba ayuda con la transición”.

McCartney encontró ese apoyo a través de United Way Miami Mission United, que conecta a los veteranos y sus familias con servicios esenciales gratuitos.

Vanessa Benavides, vicepresidenta de impacto comunitario de United Way Miami, dijo que McCartney inicialmente acudió a la organización en busca de ayuda para encontrar empleo.

“Vino a nosotros específicamente para solicitar servicios de empleo”, dijo Benavides.

La organización ayudó a McCartney a fortalecer su currículum y a recuperar la confianza en sí mismo.

“Y eso le ayudó a abrir puertas y oportunidades”, dijo Benavides.

De ‘Comandante McCartney’ a ‘Profesor Smoove’

Una de esas oportunidades llevó a McCartney al Miami Dade College.

Allí creó un programa de estudios que se convirtió en el primer curso universitario de DJ de tres créditos del país, el cual imparte actualmente.

Su formación militar sigue influyendo en su estilo de enseñanza.

El estudiante Omar Sánchez Zelaya, conocido como “Meezy Magic”, dijo que McCartney espera que sus alumnos sean puntuales y estén preparados.

“Esto es como un campamento de entrenamiento para DJs”, bromeó Sánchez Zelaya.

McCartney admite que a veces puede ser difícil dejar atrás al comandante cuando entra en el aula.

“Mi esposa siempre me dice: ‘Baja el tono, baja el tono. Sé más el Profesor Smoove que el Comandante McCartney’”, dijo.

Para estudiantes como Amanda O’Connor, conocida como “Sirene Clover”, la clase de McCartney ha ayudado a descubrir habilidades que no sabía que tenía.

“No creía tener aptitudes musicales”, dijo O’Connor. “Resulta que sí las tengo, y lo descubrí gracias a esta clase”.

Convertir los altibajos en algo bueno.

La trayectoria de McCartney también ha incluido un compromiso con la educación.

Posee una licenciatura en ingeniería eléctrica y dos maestrías, una en periodismo multimedia y otra en gestión de telecomunicaciones.

Y aún no ha terminado.

En septiembre, se espera que McCartney obtenga su tercer máster, esta vez en producción musical.

Tras experimentar tanto los altibajos que supuso dejar el ejército y construir una nueva carrera, McCartney ahora rememora ese camino con gratitud, y haciendo un guiño a su nombre artístico como DJ.

“También ha sido un camino agradable”, dijo. “Y, además, ha sido un camino de SMOOVE. Suavizar lo áspero”.

Para McCartney, una transición difícil se convirtió finalmente en una oportunidad para encontrar un nuevo propósito: utilizar la música y la educación para ayudar a sus alumnos a descubrir el suyo propio.

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Deputies with the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office said Jacob Johnson was arrested Thursday after investigators linked him to the armed robbery that they say occurred on July 31.

Deputies said they were called at about 7:15 p.m. that night to an apartment building near the 3100 block of Northwest 77th Street in the county’s Westgate area after the victim, who lives in the same apartment building as Johnson, reported that a man entered his vehicle, pointed a gun at his head and demanded his valuables.

Johnson entered through the left rear passenger door while the victim was sitting in his vehicle, according to the report.

The report states that Johnson pulled out a “two-tone revolver with a silver frame and black grip” and pressed it against the victim’s head.

Deputies said Johnson then pulled a 10-karat yellow gold Cuban-link chain from the victim’s neck while keeping the gun pressed against his temple.

They said the victim told deputies he feared for his life and felt as though he was being suffocated.

Deputies said the victim also surrendered two 10-karat yellow gold Cuban-link bracelets and a yellow gold ring depicting Our Lady of Charity to the suspect.

They said the victim estimated the jewelry that was stolen from him was worth about $113,000.

After the robbery, Johnson fled on foot toward a nearby parking garage, according to the report. The report states that the victim used his cellphone to record video of Johnson as he ran away.

Investigators said the victim believed Johnson lived in the apartment building because he saw him use a key fob to enter a secured door.

Investigators reviewed records associated with residents of the building and identified Johnson as a “person of interest,” according to the report.

The report states that apartment management staff were shown images and video of the suspect. One staff member “immediately recognized the depicted individual” and referred to him as “Mr. Jacob,” deputies said.

Surveillance footage from the building also appeared to corroborate the victim’s account, according to the report.

The footage showed Johnson leaving his apartment on the third floor just before 7 p.m. wearing clothing consistent with what the suspect was wearing in the victim’s video and photographs, the report stated.

Deputies said shortly after the robbery was reported, Johnson was seen returning to his apartment.

The victim was later shown a photographic lineup and identified Johnson as the person who robbed him, the report states.

Investigators also found that Johnson had five previous felony convictions. His most recent conviction was a 2018 Palm Beach County case involving possession of cocaine, according to the report.

Because of those prior felony convictions, Johnson was prohibited from possessing a gun or ammunition, deputies said.

They said a search warrant was conducted around 6:55 a.m. Thursday at Johnson’s home before he was taken into custody without incident and transported to MDSO headquarters.

During a post-Miranda interview, Johnson admitted to being involved in the robbery, according to the report. However, he told investigators the handgun he used was a “fictitious replica cap gun,” deputies said.

Jail records show Johnson is facing one count each of armed robbery with a firearm or deadly weapon, first-degree grand theft while armed, illegal possession of a weapon as a post-convicted felon and armed burglary.

As of Friday afternoon, he was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, where his bond was listed as “to be set.”

Agentes de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade dijeron que Jacob Johnson fue arrestado el jueves después de que los investigadores lo vincularan con el robo a mano armada que, según ellos, ocurrió el 31 de julio.

Agentes dijeron que fueron llamados alrededor de las 7:15 p.m. de esa noche a un edificio de apartamentos cerca de la cuadra 3100 de Northwest 77th Street, en el área de Westgate del condado, después de que la víctima, que vive en el mismo edificio de apartamentos que Johnson, reportara que un hombre entró en su vehículo, le apuntó con un arma a la cabeza y le exigió sus objetos de valor.

Johnson entró por la puerta trasera izquierda del lado del pasajero mientras la víctima estaba sentada en su vehículo, según el reporte.

El reporte indica que Johnson sacó un “revólver de dos tonos con armazón plateado y empuñadura negra” y lo presionó contra la cabeza de la víctima.

Agentes dijeron que Johnson luego arrancó del cuello de la víctima una cadena cubana de oro amarillo de 10 quilates mientras mantenía el arma presionada contra su sien.

Dijeron que la víctima contó a los agentes que temió por su vida y sintió como si se estuviera asfixiando.

Agentes dijeron que la víctima también entregó al sospechoso dos pulseras cubanas de oro amarillo de 10 quilates y un anillo de oro amarillo con la imagen de Nuestra Señora de la Caridad.

Dijeron que la víctima estimó que las joyas que le robaron tenían un valor aproximado de $113,000 USD.

Después del robo, Johnson huyó a pie hacia un estacionamiento cercano, según el reporte. El reporte indica que la víctima utilizó su teléfono celular para grabar un video de Johnson mientras huía.

Los investigadores dijeron que la víctima creía que Johnson vivía en el edificio de apartamentos porque lo vio utilizar un llavero electrónico para entrar por una puerta con acceso restringido.

Los investigadores revisaron los registros relacionados con los residentes del edificio e identificaron a Johnson como una “persona de interés”, según el reporte.

El reporte indica que al personal administrativo del edificio de apartamentos se le mostraron imágenes y un video del sospechoso. Un miembro del personal “reconoció inmediatamente al individuo que aparecía en las imágenes” y se refirió a él como “Sr. Jacob”, dijeron agentes.

Las imágenes de vigilancia del edificio también parecían corroborar el relato de la víctima, según el reporte.

Las imágenes mostraron a Johnson saliendo de su apartamento en el tercer piso poco antes de las 7 p.m. con ropa que coincidía con la que llevaba el sospechoso en el video y las fotografías de la víctima, indicó el reporte.

Agentes dijeron que poco después de que se reportara el robo, Johnson fue visto regresando a su apartamento.

Posteriormente, se le mostró a la víctima una rueda de reconocimiento fotográfica e identificó a Johnson como la persona que lo robó, indica el reporte.

Los investigadores también descubrieron que Johnson tenía cinco condenas previas por delitos graves. Su condena más reciente fue en un caso de 2018 en el condado Palm Beach relacionado con posesión de cocaína, según el reporte.

Debido a esas condenas previas por delitos graves, Johnson tenía prohibido poseer un arma de fuego o municiones, dijeron agentes.

Dijeron que alrededor de las 6:55 a.m. del jueves se ejecutó una orden de registro en la vivienda de Johnson antes de que fuera detenido sin incidentes y trasladado a la sede de MDSO.

Durante una entrevista posterior a la lectura de sus derechos Miranda, Johnson admitió estar involucrado en el robo, según el reporte. Sin embargo, dijo a los investigadores que la pistola que utilizó era una “réplica ficticia de una pistola de fulminantes”, dijeron agentes.

Los registros de la cárcel muestran que Johnson enfrenta un cargo de robo a mano armada con arma de fuego o arma mortal, un cargo de hurto mayor en primer grado mientras estaba armado, un cargo de posesión ilegal de un arma como ex convicto por un delito grave y un cargo de allanamiento armado.

Hasta la tarde del viernes, permanecía detenido en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight, donde su fianza figuraba como “por determinar”.

Like with Hurricane Lala, the Big Island is again expected to bear the brunt of the tropical weather, which was expected to be upgraded from a tropical depression to a tropical storm at some point Friday. The rain and heavy winds are expected to begin there late Saturday, with the storm continuing to move west across the islands through early Tuesday, said Casey Oswant, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Honolulu.

“There will still be impacts, especially to the windward and southeast sides of the Big Island, but it will probably be a little bit more limited than what we saw with Lala,” she said.

The northeast coast of the Big Island saw the heaviest rainfall from Lala, at 43.54 inches (1.1 meters), according to the weather service. The resulting flooding swept dozens of homes from their foundations and damaged roads and bridges. About 11,630 customers on the Big Island remained without power Friday, according to poweroutage.us.

Rainfall predictions for this weekend for the southeast and windward sides of the Big Island were 5 to 10 inches (13 to 25 centimeters) of rain, with isolated amounts up to 15 inches (38 centimeters), Oswant said. Across the rest of the island chain, 1 to 2 inches (2 to 5 centimeters) of rain was expected to fall, though parts of east Maui could see up to 4 inches (10 centimeters), she said.

There were no coastal watches or warnings in effect Friday morning, but people were urged to closely monitor the storm's progress. The rainfall has the potential to cause dangerous rip currents, life-threatening flooding and mudslides, especially in steep areas and places where the ground remains saturated in Lala's wake, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Hawaii Gov. Josh Green and other state officials held a news conference Thursday afternoon to update Lala recovery progress and urge people to prepare for the next storm.

Officials urged people low on emergency supplies to restock up to 14 days of food, medicine and other essentials and closely monitor the storm’s progress.

“There’s definitely tension in the air” at the thought of more rain in communities that floodwaters turned into rivers, said Tiffany Edwards Hunt, a teacher living in Keaau, on the east side of the Big Island. “There were some areas that were completely washed out.”

The Hawaiian Electric utility said it expects nearly all affected customers on the Big Island to have power restored, except for certain remote and severely damaged areas.

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The National Hurricane Center added two more lemons over the subtropical Atlantic to their tropical outlook map since Thursday.

One system is a decidedly non-tropical low-pressure system along a cold front way out over the far northeastern Atlantic and closer to Europe than to the Americas. It could take on some subtropical or even tropical characteristics over the record- to near-record warm waters west of Portugal, but the upshot regardless will be high surf, blustery weather, and periods of heavy rain to parts of Portugal and northern Spain Sunday into early Monday local time.

Meanwhile a weak and disorganized area of low pressure hundreds of miles southeast of Bermuda over the middle subtropical Atlantic has been given a 20% chance of developing, mainly early next week as it moves generally northward into the north Atlantic. It’s unlikely we see significant development as the system moves near or east of Newfoundland and Atlantic Canada by next Tuesday into Wednesday.

Models waffle on development in the eastern Atlantic next week

Forecast models continue to waffle from run-to-run on development odds for a tropical wave that’ll be rolling off Africa into the eastern Atlantic early next week.

Although the development signal has persisted for late next week in the eastern Atlantic, it’s less pronounced than in earlier runs. Google’s DeepMind 1,000-member ensemble has been especially jumpy from run-to-run, but other modeling camps like the European model ensembles have been more consistent with its development signal for later next week.

NHC hasn’t yet introduced the disturbance in its outlook, but we’ll probably see another lemon added over the weekend if trends persist.

Either way, this will have plenty of hurdles ahead given the nagging wind shear draped across the central Atlantic and isn’t anything for us stateside to be concerned with for next week.

Future Moke to slide south of Hawaii, but bring big rains to the Big Island

Yesterday morning we discussed the disturbance dubbed Invest 90E well southeast of Hawaii that was later upgraded to Tropical Depression Two-C Thursday.

The system remained disorganized Friday morning but is forecast to organize into Tropical Storm Moke by later on Friday. Over the past 24 hours, models have shifted noticeably southward, a positive trend that ensures the center of future Moke will pass 100-200 miles comfortably to the south of Hawaii.

Models have also trended way down in their intensity forecasts and show future Moke struggling as a low to mid-tier tropical storm through the weekend.

Regardless, the system’s outer circulation will enhance heavy rains on Maui and east-facing slopes of the Big Island, where up to 15 inches of rain will be possible, with the heaviest rains occurring from Sunday through next Tuesday local time. Although totals will be much lower than what Lala brought last weekend, the rains will compound rapid runoff issues with already-swollen rivers and streams.

A Flood Watch is in effect from Saturday through Monday afternoon for the windward and southeast side of the Big Island.

El Centro Nacional de Huracanes añadió dos zonas de riesgo extremo más sobre el Atlántico subtropical a su mapa de pronóstico tropical desde el jueves.

Un sistema es una baja presión claramente no tropical situada a lo largo de un frente frío en el extremo noreste del Atlántico, más cerca de Europa que de América. Podría adquirir características subtropicales o incluso tropicales sobre las aguas cálidas, que registran temperaturas récord o casi récord, al oeste de Portugal, pero en cualquier caso, el resultado será fuerte oleaje, vientos fuertes y periodos de lluvias intensas en algunas zonas de Portugal y el norte de España desde el domingo hasta la madrugada del lunes, hora local.

Mientras tanto, una zona de baja presión débil y desorganizada, ubicada a cientos de millas al sureste de las Bermudas sobre el Atlántico subtropical medio, tiene un 20% de probabilidad de desarrollarse, principalmente a principios de la próxima semana, a medida que se desplaza generalmente hacia el norte en el Atlántico Norte. Es improbable que se produzca un desarrollo significativo, ya que el sistema se acercará o se acercará al este de Terranova y el Atlántico canadiense entre el martes y el miércoles de la próxima semana.

Los modelos muestran indecisión sobre el desarrollo en el Atlántico oriental la próxima semana.

Los modelos de pronóstico siguen mostrando indecisión de una ejecución a otra sobre las probabilidades de desarrollo de una onda tropical que se desplazará desde África hacia el Atlántico oriental a principios de la próxima semana.

Si bien la señal de desarrollo se mantiene para finales de la próxima semana en el Atlántico oriental, es menos pronunciada que en ejecuciones anteriores. El conjunto de 1000 miembros de DeepMind de Google ha mostrado una variabilidad notable entre ejecuciones, pero otros grupos de modelado, como los conjuntos de modelos europeos, han sido más consistentes con su señal de desarrollo para finales de la próxima semana.

El NHC aún no ha incluido la perturbación en su pronóstico, pero probablemente veremos otro cambio negativo durante el fin de semana si las tendencias persisten.

En cualquier caso, esto presentará numerosos obstáculos debido a la persistente cizalladura del viento que azota el Atlántico central, y no es algo que deba preocuparnos a quienes vivimos en Estados Unidos la próxima semana.

Se prevé que el futuro sistema Moke se desplace al sur de Hawái, pero provocará fuertes lluvias en la Isla Grande.

Ayer por la mañana hablamos de la perturbación denominada Invest 90E, situada al sureste de Hawái, que posteriormente fue elevada a la categoría de Depresión Tropical Dos-C el jueves.

El sistema permaneció desorganizado el viernes por la mañana, pero se prevé que se organice en la tormenta tropical Moke más tarde ese mismo día. En las últimas 24 horas, los modelos se han desplazado notablemente hacia el sur, una tendencia positiva que garantiza que el centro de la futura Moke pasará cómodamente entre 100 y 200 millas al sur de Hawái.

Los modelos también han mostrado una tendencia a la baja en sus pronósticos de intensidad y prevén que Moke se mantendrá como una tormenta tropical de nivel bajo a medio durante el fin de semana.

En cualquier caso, la circulación externa del sistema intensificará las fuertes lluvias en Maui y las laderas orientales de la Isla Grande, donde podrían caer hasta 38 centímetros de lluvia, con las precipitaciones más intensas desde el domingo hasta el próximo martes, hora local. Si bien las cantidades serán mucho menores que las que trajo Lala el fin de semana pasado, las lluvias agravarán los problemas de escorrentía en ríos y arroyos que ya se encuentran crecidos.

Se ha emitido una alerta por inundaciones desde el sábado hasta la tarde del lunes para la zona de barlovento y el lado sureste de la Isla Grande.

Prosecutors then began calling rebuttal witnesses in the trial, which is likely entering its final days. Closing arguments are expected next week.

Clancy, 36, has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the deaths of her children Callan, Dawson and Cora Clancy, who ranged from 8 months to 5 years old. They were found in the basement of the family’s home in coastal Duxbury, Massachusetts. Clancy jumped from a second-story window after strangling the children and remains paralyzed from the waist down.

Prosecutors argue that Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse, planned the killings.

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

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Clancy’s lawyer, Kevin Reddington, hasn’t disputed that she killed the children but says she should not be held criminally responsible because she had postpartum psychosis, a rare mental illness linked to the stress, sleep deprivation and hormonal changes that follow childbirth.

He sought to bolster that defense by having the jury hear from more of Clancy’s family members, who detailed her worsening mental health and attempts to fix it through psychiatric treatment and medications before the January 2023 killings. The jury also heard from a psychologist and a hospital chaplain who met with Clancy after the killings.

The defense's final witness also testified at the trial of Texas mom Andrea Yates

For his final witness on Friday, Reddington called Dr. Phillip Resnick, a forensic psychiatrist and expert in filicide, or the killing of a child by a parent.

Resnick testified that Clancy was “clearly psychotic” on the day she killed her children and was not in control of her actions.

“It was almost like she was a puppet and someone else was pulling the strings,” said Resnick, who testified for the defense in the 2006 trial of Andrea Yates, the Texas mother who drowned her five children in 2001.

Resnick said he spent hours interviewing Clancy four months after the killings and believed she tended to minimize rather than exaggerate her symptoms. He said she suffered from severe depression, showed evidence consistent with bipolar disorder and reported hearing a voice commanding her to kill her children.

Resnick described several categories of filicide, including killings involving abuse. Others involve psychosis or what he calls “altruistic” filicide — a killing committed “out of love rather than hostility.” He said he found Clancy’s case involved both of the latter categories, but he didn’t find evidence of abuse.

Resnick said Clancy had a delusional belief that if social services took the children or if she killed herself, her children would suffer without her, and believed that they would be better off dying with her and going to heaven.

“She believed that she was doing what was right for her children,” he said.

Under cross-examination by prosecutor Jennifer Sprague, Resnick acknowledged that Clancy did not disclose thoughts of harming her children to medical providers who asked, but said that was “very common because people fear their children will be taken away.”

“So it’s better to kill them than have them taken away?” Sprague asked.

The judge struck the question.

Prosecutors say Clancy wasn't suffering from psychosis or bipolar disorder

Prosecutors argue that Clancy contrived to get her husband out of the house the day of the killings. They have attempted to show that while she was getting treatment for anxiety, insomnia and depression, she wasn't suffering from psychosis or bipolar disorder.

After the defense rested, prosecutors called forensic psychiatrist Dr. Avram Mack as a rebuttal witness. Mack agreed that Clancy suffered from a major depressive episode but said he found no evidence of mania or hypomania to support a bipolar diagnosis — or of psychosis — leading up to the killings.

Mack said Clancy recounted the killings to him, saying she heard a loud male voice telling her to kill the children so she could kill herself. She recalled strangling the children and saying “go to God” as she did so, he told jurors.

Mack said Clancy was experiencing severe mental illness when she killed her children but that it was a continuation of the depression she had experienced for months in which she was able to control impulses and distinguish right from wrong.

He also said, “There’s no reason that psychosis in and of itself inhibits a person’s ability to know right from wrong.”

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Clancy’s first name was misspelled in the headline of an earlier version of this story. It has been corrected to Lindsay, instead of Lindsey.

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Deputies said the suspect, Baran Pourtahmazeb-Sasi, allegedly matched with the girl on the dating app Bumble on Aug. 7 through Vitaly, an online group whose members pose as underage individuals to identify people attempting to exploit or solicit minors for sex.

According to an arrest report, the conversation moved from Bumble to text messages on Aug. 9. Deputies said a Vitaly member who posed as the girl told Pourtahmazeb-Sasi that she was 15 years old and in high school.

Investigators said Pourtahmazeb-Sasi continued communicating with members of Vitaly who were posing as the girl and allegedly made sexual comments, including discussing oral sex and masturbation.

According to the report, Pourtahmazeb-Sasi also allegedly told the person posing as the girl that he could “help her” learn about sex or that she could research it online after she said she was a virgin.

The report states that Pourtahmazeb-Sasi sent a photograph of himself wearing a military uniform and told the person posing as the girl that he had previously served in the Army.

Deputies said he later arranged to meet the person posing as the girl at a BurgerFi in Delray Beach. According to the report, he allegedly said he wanted to perform oral sex and “make love to her.”

Authorities said Pourtahmazeb-Sasi continued communicating with the person posing as the girl and later sent a message saying he had awakened from a dream about kissing her.

They said the two then made plans to meet at a Dunkin’ in Pompano Beach.

At approximately 6 p.m. Tuesday, Pourtahmazeb-Sasi arrived at the Dunkin’, where he was met by members of Vitaly, according to investigators. The encounter was livestreamed on Kick, authorities said.

BSO deputies then took Pourtahmazeb-Sasi into custody, according to the report.

Jail records show he was arrested on charges including solicitation of a minor, traveling to meet a minor for sexual acts and harmful material involving a minor.

As of Friday morning, he was being held at the Broward County Main Jail, where his bond wasn’t immediately set.

Agentes dijeron que el sospechoso, Baran Pourtahmazeb-Sasi, presuntamente hizo “match” con la adolescente en la aplicación de citas Bumble el 7 de agosto a través de Vitaly, un grupo en línea cuyos miembros se hacen pasar por menores de edad para identificar a personas que intentan explotar o solicitar sexo a menores.

Según un reporte de arresto, la conversación pasó de Bumble a mensajes de texto el 9 de agosto. Agentes dijeron que un miembro de Vitaly que se hizo pasar por la adolescente le dijo a Pourtahmazeb-Sasi que tenía 15 años y que asistía a la escuela secundaria.

Los investigadores dijeron que Pourtahmazeb-Sasi continuó comunicándose con miembros de Vitaly que se hacían pasar por la adolescente y presuntamente hizo comentarios sexuales, incluyendo hablar sobre sexo oral y masturbación.

Según el reporte, Pourtahmazeb-Sasi también presuntamente le dijo a la persona que se hacía pasar por la adolescente que podía “ayudarla” a aprender sobre sexo o que podía investigarlo en línea después de que ella dijo que era virgen.

El reporte indica que Pourtahmazeb-Sasi envió una fotografía de sí mismo vistiendo un uniforme militar y le dijo a la persona que se hacía pasar por la adolescente que anteriormente había servido en el Ejército.

Agentes dijeron que posteriormente coordinó un encuentro con la persona que se hacía pasar por la adolescente en un BurgerFi en Delray Beach. Según el reporte, presuntamente dijo que quería practicarle sexo oral y “hacerle el amor”.

Las autoridades dijeron que Pourtahmazeb-Sasi continuó comunicándose con la persona que se hacía pasar por la adolescente y posteriormente envió un mensaje diciendo que se había despertado de un sueño en el que la besaba.

Dijeron que ambos hicieron planes para reunirse en un Dunkin” en Pompano Beach.

Aproximadamente a las 6 p.m. del martes, Pourtahmazeb-Sasi llegó al Dunkin”, donde fue recibido por miembros de Vitaly, según los investigadores. Las autoridades dijeron que el encuentro fue transmitido en vivo por Kick.

Agentes de BSO detuvieron entonces a Pourtahmazeb-Sasi, según el reporte.

Los registros de la cárcel muestran que fue arrestado por cargos que incluyen solicitar a una menor, viajar para encontrarse con una menor para realizar actos sexuales y material perjudicial que involucra a una menor.

Hasta la mañana del viernes, permanecía detenido en la cárcel principal del condado Broward, donde su fianza no había sido fijada de inmediato.

El impacto ocurrió alrededor de las 6 a.m. frente al marcador de milla 81 en Islamorada, cuando el grupo, encabezado por el capitán Richard Stanczyk de Stanz Fishing, se encontró con un aguacero mientras se dirigía a pescar en la bahía con clientes, uno de los cuales pidió ayuda posteriormente.

Las autoridades dijeron que la embarcación quedó inoperable después del impacto y un barco de remolque la llevó a Bud N’ Mary’s Marina, en 79851 Overseas Highway, donde los paramédicos trasladaron en helicóptero a Stanczyk, de 44 años, hacia Miami-Dade.

Su condición no se conocía de inmediato hasta finales de la mañana del jueves.

Según la policía, los agentes recibieron dos alertas de ShotSpotter alrededor de las 12:15 a.m. del viernes y establecieron un perímetro a lo largo de Northwest Seventh Avenue, entre las calles Northwest 52nd y Northwest 54th, mientras investigaban.

Cuando los agentes llegaron, continuaron escuchando disparos adicionales en el área, según la policía.

Posteriormente, los agentes hicieron contacto con una víctima que dijo a los investigadores que un hombre le había estado disparando.

La policía también encontró en la escena un vehículo que había sido alcanzado por múltiples disparos.

A pesar de los disparos, las autoridades indicaron que no se reportaron heridos.

La policía no ha divulgado información sobre un posible sospechoso ni sobre lo que pudo haber provocado la balacera.

La investigación continúa en curso.

Se pide a cualquier persona que tenga más información que llame al Departamento de Policía de Miami o a Crime Stoppers de Miami-Dade al 305-471-8477.

Según la Oficina del Sheriff de Broward (BSO), la balacera fue reportada alrededor de las 10:15 p.m. en la cuadra 200 de Southwest First Terrace.

La reportera de Local 10 News Jolena Esperto estuvo en el lugar la mañana del jueves y dijo que al parecer la balacera ocurrió dentro o fuera de una tienda de vapeo en la plaza comercial.

Las autoridades confirmaron que agentes de BSO y paramédicos de Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue acudieron al área y encontraron a la víctima, quien había recibido disparos.

Los socorristas lo declararon muerto en el lugar.

Los agentes confirmaron que una persona fue detenida y que no había ninguna amenaza para la comunidad, sin embargo, no está claro si esa persona enfrentará cargos por la balacera.

La investigación continúa en curso.

Se pide a cualquier persona que tenga información sobre la balacera que llame a Broward Crime Stoppers al 954-493-8477.

No act of Congress mandated the color, with its slight orange tint. Rather, a 1939 conference of transportation officials from all U.S. states (then 48) chose the shade for its visibility as one of the first safety standards. At their peak in the 1980s, the yellow buses took more than 60% of U.S. students to school.

The metal-bodied school bus got its start in rural America. Georgia car dealer Albert Luce designed it to carry cement workers, then marketed it to schools when the company turned it down.

It was impeccable timing as school districts replaced one-room neighborhood schoolhouses with larger ones much farther apart. That consolidation gave rise to the school bus.

“I don’t think you could’ve had one without the other,” says Matt Anderson, head transportation curator at the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation in Dearborn, Michigan, which houses Luce’s 1927 bus.

Decades later, buses helped desegregate schools, hauling Black and white children across the country’s racial divide. The controversial practice has mostly ended, and in much of the United States, schools have grown more segregated, not less.

Carl Fisher drove a metal school bus for two-thirds of its nearly 100-year history. With 66 years behind the wheel, Fisher retired in 2012 as the longest-working driver, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. His first model was a Dodge truck that his dad’s friend converted, adding benches and small stools to haul 20 children in Pleasant Hope, Missouri.

“He put windows in it and everything, really made it nice,” Fisher says.

The basics became industry standard and more safety upgrades followed, including padded seats and a flip-out stop sign.

“It’s the safest form of on-road transportation per passenger, per mile, bar none — without seat belts,” says Brad Beauchamp, who is with the electric vehicles team at Blue Bird, the yellow school bus maker Luce reputedly named after the bird his wife spotted on a fence post.

Due to driver shortages and other factors, a yellow school bus is no longeravailable to take many students to school, putting pressure on families to figure out transportation.

Jim Oppegard, who drove kids for more than two decades in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Park, retired at 94 as the oldest school bus driver on record. It's rewarding work, he says.

“You’re helping the kids and helping the overall society,” he says. “You’re doing an important job.”

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

A 2-1 decision by a panel of the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals halted, for now, a judge's order that would have granted thousands of athletes an extra season of eligibility. But it did nothing to resolve dozens of other lawsuits and court orders piling up across the country that allow players in the same situation to join teams for the upcoming season.

Virtually all these lawsuits involve players who graduated from high school in 2022, whose college eligibility ended last season and who were not included in the NCAA’s controversial new rule — less than two months old — that grants most Division I athletes five years of eligibility over five years but doesn't take effect until next season.

“There's a reason we saw so many state-court lawsuits filed" after the now-paused federal court ruling that came down July 31, said Sam Ehrlich, a former lawyer who now works at Boise State and operates the College Sports Litigation Tracker. “It was a ‘just in case.’ They did it just in case what we just saw happen actually happened.”

Among the many athletes watching this unfold and wondering where it winds up are defensive linemen Kellan Wyatt and Stephan Daley, both members of the national championship team at Indiana last season who decided to return after the lower-court decision. So are former Ole Miss starters Dae’Quan Wright, Zxavian Harris and Wydett Williams, who won a ruling from a Louisiana state court giving them another season of eligibility even though they had signed with NFL teams this summer.

While some players hope to land back at their schools, whatever the impact on the rosters, how that works isn’t at all clear in many cases. The judge in the case involving the Ole Miss players, for example, gave them a week to enter the transfer portal, which for football players is only open in January.

In appealing the state court cases, the NCAA is expected to invoke parts of Friday's ruling, which agreed with NCAA arguments that it was likely to win the case when it's heard in full — probably several months from now — and that the NCAA would suffer more harm than the players if the court didn't pause the order.

The NCAA can also take heart in an Ohio appeals court that paused a similar injunction involving Xavier basketball Filip Borovicanin and others.

But other than those two cases, Ehrlich said, judges across the country "are unanimous that the NCAA is in the wrong” on the five-year eligibility issue when it comes to the Class of 2022.

Plaintiffs' attorney Rob Shelquist issued a statement calling the appeals court ruling procedural and “not a decision on the merits of the athletes’ antitrust claims.”

“We are exploring every available option given the split in the panel’s ruling and remain committed to fighting for these college athletes whose opportunities and eligibility have been unfairly restricted,” he said.

The NCAA’s chief legal officer, Scott Bearby, sent a memo to schools telling them they would not be subject to NCAA punishment for allowing any player to compete between the time the July 31 ruling came down and Friday. But he reiterated that those players are no longer eligible.

Bearby also acknowledged that the NCAA would continue to defend lawsuits around the country — a signal that the NCAA knows Friday’s ruling offers no guarantees of an end to the roster chaos.

“If anything, I do wonder if there’s a part of the NCAA that’s, like, ‘Maybe we’d have been better off not getting the stay because, boy, there’s going to be a lot of lawsuits filed over the next couple of weeks,’” Ehrlich said.

Courts that go beyond filing emergency injunctions and take up the cases in their entirety will have to decide who suffers more harm: Is it players who can't play a fifth year and could lose educational and NIL opportunities? Or incoming freshmen who signed with the idea that they wouldn't be competing against a class of fifth-year seniors?

When the NCAA decided to have the rule kick in next year, it also grappled with that calculation, knowing it couldn't be perfectly fair.

“Fairness is in the eye of the beholder," the NCAA argued in its legal brief in the appeals case. “Countless student-athletes already on campuses, and schools who built their rosters in reliance on the rules the NCAA’s membership wrote and agreed to follow, do not believe it is fair for thousands of formerly ineligible athletes to return to competition at the start of the 2026–27 season."

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The ruling does not affect a $1.25 billion judgment against Jones in Connecticut, but is a legal victory for him after he and his company, Free Speech Systems, were found liable for damages for claiming the mass shooting didn’t happen.

Despite the multiple financial judgments against him in Connecticut and Texas, Jones has yet to make any payments as he appeals the amounts and the attempt to liquidate his company.

The unanimous opinion by the Texas Third Court of Appeals left intact more than $4.1 million in compensatory damages awarded by a jury to Sandy Hook parents Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis for defamation and emotional distress.

But the court slashed more than $45 million in additional punitive damages down to $1.5 million to comply with the state's $750,000 cap for each plaintiff.

The court found that Heslin and Lewis did not show evidence that harassment that resulted from Jones’ hoax claims rose to a level that would allow them to exceed the cap. It also said the trial judge improperly allowed the parents to seek higher damages after trial.

26 killed in Sandy Hook massacre

Heslin and Lewis’s 6-year-old son Jesse Lewis was among 20 children and six educators killed in the attack in Newtown, Connecticut. The lawsuit and the 2022 verdict against Jones marked the first time he was held financially liable for peddling lies about the massacre, claiming it was faked by the government to tighten gun laws.

Jones, who portrayed the lawsuit as an attack on his First Amendment rights, conceded during the trial that the attack was “100% real” and that he was wrong to have lied about it.

However, on his streaming show Friday, he called the Texas ruling “a gigantic victory for the First Amendment,” and said he will continue to appeal the case to the state Supreme Court to get the remaining damages thrown out.

“I got lawyers who are good constitutional lawyers and they are not backing down,” Jones said.

Mark Bankston, an attorney for Heslin and Lewis in Texas, shrugged off the appeals court ruling as “irrelevant” given that Jones still faces massive financial judgments.

“The families care not at all about this irrelevant ruling which affects only two of the 19 claims they all share. Jones still faces over a billion dollars of liability, so this changes absolutely nothing. All it does is highlight the absurdity of Texas law," Bankston said.

Newtown families harassed

Heslin and Lewis told jurors in the case that an apology wouldn’t suffice and called on them to make Jones pay for the years of suffering he has put them and other Sandy Hook families through.

At the Texas and Connecticut trials, victims’ relatives testified that Jones' followers -- believing his claims that the shooting didn’t happen -- subjected them to death and rape threats, in-person harassment and abusive comments on social media. Jones argued there was no proof that linked him to those actions.

Jones’ trial attorney, Andino Reynal, had said immediately after the verdict that Jones would appeal the damages amount, and predicted it would be reduced to $1.5 million.

Christopher Mattei, a lawyer for the Sandy Hook families in the Connecticut lawsuit, said Friday’s ruling has no bearing on the ongoing lower court proceedings in Texas involving the liquidation of Infowars’ parent company.

Jones and his company have filed for bankruptcy, and those legal proceedings continue. The satirical website The Onion also moved to take over Jones' Infowars platforms and turn his bullhorn of conspiracy theories into parody sites.

Jones gave up the Infowars brand in April and moved to a new location, switching his shows to new websites and posting them on his personal X account. The Onion, meanwhile, has set up its own Infowars webpage on its website, running videos of shows parodying Jones.

A proposed licensing deal that would give The Onion temporary authority to use Infowars’ trademarks, copyrights and intellectual property has been put on hold because the liquidation proceedings have been stayed during Jones’ appeals.

In November 2024, the Chicago-based satirical outlet was named the winner of a bankruptcy court auction of the assets of Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems, aimed at helping pay some of the defamation judgments. But a federal judge overturned the auction results, citing problems with the process and The Onion’s bid.

Despite not having authority to use Infowars’ intellectual property, The Onion moved ahead with its own Infowars webpage, replacing the “o” in Infowars with an onion and selling products under that logo including T-shirts, tote bags and coffee mugs, with some proceeds going to the Sandy Hook families.

___ This story has been corrected to show that Jones is still liable for $4.1 million in compensatory damages in addition to $1.5 million in punitive damages.

___ Dave Collins contributed from Hartford, Connecticut.

Wesam Hamada said her daughter Hind Rajab’s final pleas still haunt her.

“All I remember is her voice pleading, ‘Mama, I’m scared. Mama, I’m hungry. Mama, I’m hurt,’" she said. “Her voice keeps repeating in my ears.”

The widely publicized recording of Hind's January 2024 phone call with her mother and emergency dispatchers made her one of the Israel-Hamas war’s most prominent casualties.

Israel’s military this week admitted to firing at the family’s car as it fled an Israeli invasion and firing toward an ambulance dispatched to help them.

It said it would launch a criminal investigation into its troops’ conduct. All six people in the car and two paramedics were killed. But both Rajab’s family and emergency responders from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society doubt the Israeli investigation can deliver justice.

“Why did the investigation and the acknowledgment of the shooting at Hind’s car and at the paramedics come only after more than two years?” Hamada said in an interview with The Associated Press. “It’s an attempt to distract from what’s happening in Gaza and improve the (Israeli) army’s image to the world. That’s it."

A call to paramedics that was heard around the world

The story of their deaths drew international outcry after the Palestinian Red Crescent Society released recordings of Hind and her 15-year-old cousin Layan Hamada calling for help. It was further amplified by “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” a film that excerpted the recordings and was nominated for an Oscar.

On the recordings, as audible gunfire erupts around them, Hamada asks for help and tells Red Crescent dispatchers that her family had been killed. Seconds later, more gunshots are heard, and Layan’s screaming stops.

Ambulance dispatchers called back and found Hind on the other end of the line. She told them Layan was dead and Israeli tanks were advancing. The Red Crescent sent an ambulance and stayed in contact with Hind until the call dropped.

Hind and five relatives were found dead in the family car 12 days later. The two medics sent to rescue her were also found dead nearby, their ambulance blackened and destroyed.

Israel initially said its troops were not in the area. A U.N. commission of inquiry and an investigation by the research group Forensic Architecture found evidence placing Israeli forces near the car and attributed the attack to them.

Rana Al Faqih, a dispatcher who was in contact with Hind for more than three hours, said the day remains seared in her memory. She tried to calm Hind and eventually patched her mother onto the call.

“I couldn’t physically reach Hind, embrace her or help her feel safe,” she said in an interview at the Red Crescent headquarters in Ramallah, West Bank. “All I had was my voice. My voice was with her, and it might have comforted her.”

Advocates doubt an Israeli investigation can bring accountability

The investigation is one of two criminal probes the military announced Wednesday after reviewing roughly 150 incidents.

Military investigators will now take up the probes and present their findings to military prosecutors. The military advocate general can then decide to keep investigating, indict any soldiers or decline to charge them.

Israeli officials say the country’s justice system can address any violations by its troops. But such investigations rarely lead to indictments. Just 0.17% of incidents reviewed from 2014 and 2022 led to prosecution, according to an analysis by Israeli rights group Yesh Din.

The Belgium-based Hind Rajab Foundation — which campaigns for the arrest of Israeli troops it accuses of war crimes — said in a statement on Wednesday that an Israeli military investigation “should not be mistaken for a genuine step toward justice.”

“Israel’s internal investigations into the criminal conduct of its own soldiers are fundamentally flawed and cannot be regarded as credible mechanisms of accountability,” it said.

A mother says her grief is not unique

The Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in southern Israel and abducted 251 others. More than 73,400 people have been killed in the Israeli offensive since, according to the health ministry in Gaza.

The ministry, part of the Hamas-led government, does not give a breakdown of civilians and militants but says women and children constitute about half the deaths.

Hamada said her pain since the killing of Hind — who had wanted to become a doctor — was not unique.

“The pain is like the pain of every mother who has lost her child in Gaza,” she said. “You wish she were in front of you, growing up and fulfilling your dreams and her dreams, and then you lose her in the most horrific circumstances.”

__ Ibrahim Hazboun in Jerusalem, and Haitham Hamed in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed reporting.

Also, Turkey announced it is asking for an international warrant for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his role in stopping several boats trying to break a naval blockade of Gaza in May, and an Israeli human rights watchdog is warning that settler violence has expanded from rural to urban areas in the West Bank.

Here’s a look at the latest developments in the Iran war and the wider Middle East on Friday. Full coverage can be found here.

Palestinian teen killed by Israeli settlers after rock-throwing incident

A 17-year-old Palestinian was killed and another man wounded by Israeli settler gunfire after rocks were thrown Friday in Sa’ir, north of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

The ministry identified the teenager as Karim Sanad Raja Shalaldeh. The teenager’s father told The Associated Press at the hospital that Israeli settlers had killed his son.

The Israeli military said soldiers were dispatched to Sa’ir after Palestinians threw rocks at Israeli civilians who were in the area without prior authorization. Some Israelis were injured and a security official opened fire.

Separately, the Palestinian General Authority for Civil Affairs informed the Health Ministry that 58-year-old Fathi Khazem was fatally shot by Israeli forces early Friday in Jenin.

An Israeli army official speaking on condition of anonymity in line with military rules said Khazem attempted to stab an Israeli soldier during an overnight operation. No Israeli soldiers were injured.

The Israeli official said Khazem was the father of Raed Khazem, who shot and killed three people in Tel Aviv in April 2022.

Violence has escalated in the West Bank where at least 87 Palestinians have been killed in almost 1,500 attacks by Israeli settlers and soldiers this year, according to Palestinian officials. Three Israelis have been killed by Palestinians in 2026.

— By Koral Saeed in Herzliya, Israel.

Turkey seeks international warrant for Netanyahu over May blockade

Turkey is seeking an international warrant for Netanyahu's arrest over Israel’s interception of an international flotilla that attempted to break a naval blockade of Gaza.

The Interpol red notice sought against Netanyahu and one other Israeli national was tied to an Istanbul court case trying 35 defendants in absentia for alleged “genocide,” other crimes against humanity, torture, unlawful detention and hijacking, Turkish Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said in a statement posted on X.

The charges stem from the Israeli navy’s interception in May of several vessels in international waters off Cyprus days after the flotilla departed from the Turkish port of Marmaris. Some detained activists reported mistreatment.

Turkey is among the most vocal critics of Israel’s government.

Netanyahu responded on social media, calling Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan an antisemitic dictator who has “massacred Kurds, harbors Hamas terrorists, occupies half of Cyprus, and jails record numbers of journalists and politicians who oppose him.”

“Erdogan’s pathetic attempt to intimidate the leaders and soldiers of Israel, the only true democracy in the Middle East, will go nowhere,” Netanyahu said Friday.

Rights group says Israeli settler violence heads to established Palestinian cities

An Israeli group that collects information about potential human rights violations against Palestinians says reported incidents of Israeli settler violence have moved from the rural West Bank toward larger, more populated Palestinian cities and towns.

The establishment of new settlements and outposts throughout the West Bank has emboldened extremist settlers, who are now encroaching on larger communities that previously were far from the front lines of settler violence, Yesh Din said in its report released Friday titled “The Next Frontier.”

The uptick in violence corresponds with the Israeli government’s approval of new settlements and the expansion of outposts that it doesn’t authorize but often leaves in place, according to the report.

“As outposts advance deeper into Palestinian territory, violence, harassment and terror follow,” Yesh Din wrote.

Some 3 million Palestinians live under Israeli military rule in the West Bank alongside roughly 560,000 Israeli settlers.

Economic woes return to Lebanon

Lebanon’s economy is projected to contract 6.4% this year because the latest Israel-Hezbollah war reversed the economic recovery of the previous year, the World Bank said Friday.

The destruction from the war that started in March and related sharp drop in tourism reversed a 4.2% growth seen in 2025 in Lebanon's economy, the organization said.

The World Bank also predicts a sharp increase in inflation driven by supply disruptions, higher shipping costs, and rising oil prices, which will further reduce purchasing power.

Lebanon's economy has been in crisis since a 2019 banking collapse.

11 countries call Israeli airstrikes in Syria an extreme escalation

The foreign ministers of 11 countries are calling Israel’s airstrikes on a Syrian air base an extreme escalation.

The ministers of Turkey, Algeria, Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mauritania, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and the Palestinian territories warned that attacks on Syria undermine its reconstruction efforts as well as its attempts to restore security, according to a joint statement released by the Turkish Foreign Ministry.

The Israeli strikes hit the Abu Duhur base early Tuesday, causing damage but no casualties. Netanyahu’s office said Israel targeted the base because Syria was about to breach an agreed “status quo in security matters” by allowing Turkish troops to deploy there.

Sinner beat Alexander Zverev last month for his second straight title at the All England Club, but then pulled out of the hard-court tournaments in Montreal and Cincinnati that serve as a warmup for the U.S. Open.

The 25-year-old Italian wrote Friday that he won't be ready when the main draw begins on Aug. 30.

“Even though I have been working hard with my team and my medical staff, we have now had to make the difficult decision that I will not be able to compete at the US Open this year,” Sinner wrote in a post on X.

“We have been back on court in Monte Carlo over the last couple of days and have realized that I still need more time to recover from my right knee issue. I’m obviously very sad and disappointed, as New York has a special place in my heart. I was very much looking forward to coming back and playing in the electric atmosphere in front of the great fans there.”

Sinner was the 2024 U.S. Open champion and lost to Carlos Alcaraz in last year's final.

Alcaraz posted on social media on Thursday that he would be ready to play in New York after he has been out of action since April because of a right wrist injury.

The rivalry between those two has dominated men's tennis in recent years, and they met in the last three Grand Slam finals in 2025. Alcaraz took the most recent one with his four-set victory in New York.

That ended Sinner's title reign after he beat Taylor Fritz in straight sets in the 2024 final.

Sinner is 44-3 with six titles this year. He had a stunning collapse at the French Open, blowing a two-set lead while struggling in the heat in his second-round match against Juan Manuel Cerundolo. He then sat out until Wimbledon, where his victory gave him five Grand Slam titles.

It will be the first time Sinner has missed a Grand Slam tournament since making his major debut at the U.S. Open in 2019.

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See AP’s full tennis coverage here

Officials said there were no reports of any serious injuries.

The National Weather Service said a trained spotter reported a tornado in Dover, Delaware, during Thursday's storms. Photos and video on social media show the roof of a motel being blown off and damage to other buildings along Route 13 northeast of downtown.

In Atlantic Beach on Long Island, images posted on social media show a large funnel cloud over the water and small buildings torn apart at a beach club. The weather service confirmed a tornado touched down on the shore, saying it started as a waterspout over the Atlantic Ocean.

Weather service crews were going to view the Delaware and Long Island damage on Friday to determine the strengths and paths of the tornadoes.

Dover Mayor Robin Christiansen said a state of emergency was lifted Friday morning to allow residents and businesses to resume normal activities. Police urged residents to be patient and set aside extra time for travel.

“There is still debris throughout the city, and crews will be out working on cleanup, repairs, and restoring services. You may encounter blocked lanes, utility crews, emergency personnel, and other delays,” police said on social media.

On Long Island, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman said first responders rescued people trapped in their vehicles during flooding.

In other parts of New York, flooding caused part of the Long Island Expressway in Queens to close in both directions, according to New York City Emergency Management. Photos on social media showed lines of stopped cars as emergency crews traversed the water.

In Jersey City, New Jersey, emergency crews rescued 69 people trapped in cars that were overtaken by flash flooding, said Mayor James Solomon. Emergency crews used small inflatable boats to reach people who were stranded.

Según la policía, agentes y un equipo de Miami-Dade Fire Rescue respondieron al área de 1860 S. Ocean Drive, donde los paramédicos realizaron “medidas para salvarle la vida” a la víctima antes de trasladarla a un hospital cercano.

La policía no tenía de inmediato más información sobre el estado de la víctima.

Las circunstancias en torno al incidente en el que el hombre casi se ahogó continúan bajo investigación.

No se divulgaron de inmediato otros detalles.

In an Instagram post Thursday, the 39-year-old Simpson said she was diagnosed with Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy (ARVC), a condition that triggered “dangerous heart rhythms that ultimately caused my heart to stop.”

She said the diagnosis means it would be dangerous to return to running.

“That chapter has ended,” she said. “Thankfully, my story hasn't.”

Simpson was pacing a group of girls in a mile run at an event in Raleigh, North Carolina, when she collapsed. She underwent CPR at the track and an automated external defibrillator was also used before medics rushed her to the hospital.

“You might be wondering what would be the right thing to say to me after an event like this,” she wrote. “Please do not say that you're sorry or that you feel bad for me. If it is true in your heart, please tell me you're glad that I'm here. That's how I feel — so glad that I'm still here.”

For about a decade beginning in 2007, Simpson was America's most successful women's 1,500-meter runner. She won worlds in 2011, finished second there twice and won Olympic bronze in Rio in 2016.

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

Those losing coverage in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, include people who don't meet the tightening requirements to participate, and, advocates say, some who qualify for the help but are rejected because they miss deadlines or don't have the needed documentation handy. It's too early to tell exactly how many fall into each group.

It's also unclear how many have lost coverage because some state agencies that run the programs are overwhelmed trying to keep up with changes. That was the case in Arizona, which saw the nation's largest enrollment drop.

Tia Fields, who analyzes social safety net policies at the advocacy group Invest in Louisiana, said the main reason she's seeing people lose coverage is not failure to meet work requirements. “A lot of it is administrative paperwork,” she said.

Proponents of welfare reform hope the roll reductions are driven by people earning too much to keep qualifying — a sign that policy changes are behaving as intended for a program they assert is riddled with fraud.

“If there are people that are leaving the welfare rolls because they're working and they're moving forward,” said Rachel Sheffield, a research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, which pushed for stricter requirements for SNAP, “that would be a step forward.”

Arizona has had the steepest decline so far, with a 12-month drop of more than 50%, according to data compiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs SNAP. The decline was more than 20% in Georgia, Louisiana and Nevada — and in Florida, where the Department of Children and Families said in a statement that the decreasing number “is reflective of the state's strong focus on advancing opportunities for Floridians and their families to achieve economic self-sufficiency.”

Eligibility requirements are tightening

SNAP helps more than 1 in 10 people in the U.S. buy food. Most of the beneficiaries have incomes below the poverty line. The monthly benefit, which is delivered on debit cards that can be used only for groceries, is $344 per household on average.

Newly released federal data found SNAP enrollment fell from 42.2 million in May 2025 to 36.6 million in May, a drop of more than 13% in a year. The May data are preliminary and could be revised.

Since 2010, the average number of monthly beneficiaries has been below 40 million for only two years — 2019 and 2020. The rolls started dropping after a recent peak of 43.3 million in October 2024. They've fallen much faster since implementation began last year for Trump’s “one big beautiful bill,” which cut taxes and overhauled social safety net programs.

The expanded SNAP work requirement has now kicked in for most of the country, but it won’t begin in some places until next year.

Many adults 54 and younger without minor children have long been required to work to get SNAP benefits. The new law requires most people who previously had been exempt from requirements to either work, volunteer or go to school to get benefits. It now includes those ages 55 to 64, and those with children ages 14 to 17. Those 65 and older or with children younger than 14 remain exempt, as do those with health limitations. Some other groups that had been exempted from the requirement — including homeless people — no longer are.

In February, the Congressional Budget Office projected that the new requirements and other factors would push SNAP enrollment down over the next decade, falling below 34 million by 2036. But the nonpartisan office did not expect the drop to be as fast as it's been. By May, the number of people receiving the benefits was about as low as it was forecast to go in 2030.

Experts expect another impact when states are required to pay part of the cost of benefits if their rate of payment errors — when recipients receive more or less than they should — is above 6%. Advocates for recipients say states may deny benefits to some people entirely rather than risk errors.

The cost-sharing is scheduled to start in October 2027, though Congress has considered a delay.

Changes have been hard to implement in Arizona

In Arizona, enrollment plummeted by 55% from April 2025 to April 2026 — the biggest drop in the country, with more than 400,000 fewer people getting benefits now.

The state said the drop was driven largely by the state's own struggles putting new federal requirements in place.

“Implementing the federally mandated changes triggered unprecedented call volumes and administrative hurdles, including additional verification requirements, creating real barriers for applicants,” said Brett Bezio, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Economic Security.

Bezio said that hiring more staff members and introducing ways for people to submit their documents online have stemmed the enrollment drop in recent months as the state has reduced the chance for people who qualify to lose benefits.

In Phoenix, LaDiamond Lopez lost her benefits in January, with officials telling her she needed more documentation about her income and household — something that's needed for officials to determine whether enrollees meet work requirements.

She’s been skipping meals and some bill payments to ensure her children have enough to eat.

In her quest to be reinstated, she had previous employers sign forms confirming she no longer worked for them and added her children — ages 3 and 9 — to her apartment lease. She expected payments to resume in August, but she doesn’t know if they’ll last.

“I was approved at the end of May, but now they’re asking me for more documents,” she said. “It’s a panic.”

Other factors could be driving down enrollment

The Heritage Foundation's Sheffield says that some of the drop in SNAP use is likely a natural decline after peaks in the coronavirus pandemic era.

Paco Velez, the president and CEO of Feeding South Florida, said the 22% one-year enrollment drop in Florida is driven partly by immigrants who are in the U.S. legally but fear being targeted by Trump's immigration crackdown if they're seeking government benefits.

Invest in Louisiana's Fields said SNAP enrollment declines have broader consequences. For instance, children in households that receive the benefit can be automatically enrolled in free school lunch programs or in the SNAP for Women, Infants and Children program for low-income mothers, young children and expectant parents if they meet the other criteria.

“What happens when that child can’t pay for lunch?” she asked.

Some food banks have ramped up donations to try to meet a demand that they say has risen as SNAP rolls have declined. But that isn't expected to bridge the gap fully.

“We’re very worried about it because we know that no other organization or program can replicate the scale and success of SNAP,” said Carolyn Vega, a policy analyst at the advocacy group Share Our Strength. “We know that schools can’t fill this gap. We know that food banks can’t fill this gap.”

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Schuettler is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

___

Mulvihill reported from Haddonfield, New Jersey.

Police Chief Tommy Alriksson told a news conference that the suspect had been arrested following the attack at the school in the central town of Fagersta, northwest of the capital, Stockholm.

Police confirmed that shots were fired during the arrest. It was not clear whether the suspect had been injured, but he was being held in custody — not treated in a hospital.

The attack took place at the Brinell School in Fagersta while classes were in session, with about 400 to 500 students, officials said. There was no immediate word on the attacker's possible motive.

“We have no reason at this time to believe that there are multiple perpetrators,” Alriksson said, adding that an investigation was continuing.

Sweden’s national police said investigators have already carried out two house searches in connection with the suspect. Many witnesses were expected to be interviewed as part of the investigation.

“That’s why we can’t give out too much information, because we don’t want to influence witnesses,” Alriksson said.

Vastmanland County, where the town is located, said the two seriously injured boys were between 12 and 17 years old, the TT news agency reported. It did not provide details about the dead person.

Police spokesperson Pelle Vamstad, quoted by TT, said an alarm was received in the early afternoon Friday. Police cordoned off a wide area around the school as part of their response. Several nearby schools had been locked down following the incident, and roadblocks were set up, authorities said.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, in a post earlier on the X social media platform, lamented the violence in Fagersta “right after the summer break.”

“We do not yet know what lies behind the act, but we know that the police are working very intensively,” he added. “Our thoughts are with all those affected.”

The Fagersta city government set up a crisis center in a sports hall near the school. The Vastmanland County government said “many people” were affected and that police, fire services, and healthcare workers were among those caring for them.

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Associated Press writer Sylvia Hui in London contributed to this report.

The attack is the latest in a series of frequent and deadly aerial strikes targeting armed pro-democracy forces and ethnic armed groups in the country. The strikes often cause civilian casualties.

The attack occurred in Swel Le Oh village in Myaung township, about 75 kilometers (45 miles) west of Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city, according to Nway Oo, a spokesperson for the Civil Defense and Security Organization of Myaung Township, or CDSOM.

Nway Oo said that 14 people, including three women, were killed and 20 others were wounded when a fighter jet dropped a bomb in the compound of the village’s monastery.

A villager who spoke on condition of anonymity, because he feared for his safety, also confirmed the death toll to The Associated Press. The villager said that the fighter jet dropped two bombs 15 minutes apart, with the second bomb damaging a house near the monastery where more than 100 people were on a weeklong retreat during Buddhist Lent.

The villager, whose mother-in-law was killed in the airstrike, said that people fled to a nearby community after cremating bodies of the victims.

BBC’s Burmese-Language service and Myanmar’s media outlets, including Myanmar Now, reported the death toll at between 10 and 14. They also posted photos and videos showing what they said was the aftermath of the strike, with images of bodies.

The military didn't immediately comment. In the past, the army has said that it only attacks legitimate targets of war, accusing the resistance forces of being terrorists.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021, triggering a civil war. After peaceful demonstrations were put down with lethal force, many opponents of military rule took up arms, and large parts of the country are embroiled in conflict.

The military has increasingly used airstrikes to counter opposition forces, including the armed People’s Defense Forces in Sagaing region, a stronghold of armed resistance. The resistance has no effective defense against air attacks.

The monastery attack comes a week after the U.N.-established Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, or IIMM, said that it observed a notable escalation in aerial attacks by the military in the months preceding the elections held in December and January, and that they have continued unabated afterward.

Myanmar’s foreign ministry rejected the IIMM report on Sunday, saying that limited airstrikes and counterterrorism operations solely aim at military targets and were carried out in response to insurgents and terrorist groups in accordance with the rules of engagement, and that the security forces exercise maximum restraint to avoid civilian harm.

The National Transportation Safety Board said the pilots could not see the runway and had to rely entirely on instruments as they tried to land Thursday at the Cape Newenham Long Range Radar Site Airport about 450 miles (725 kilometers) west of Anchorage.

The two pilots and six passengers who died in the crash around midday Thursday were not immediately identified. Two U.S. Army Corps of Engineers employees were among those killed.

The radar site was built in the 1950s as part of a network designed to provide early warning of a missile attack by the Soviet Union. Today, it monitors the skies off the coast in the direction of Russia, North Korea and China.

The site has a gravel airstrip built on the slope of a mountain. The Federal Aviation Administration recommends that pilots use GPS and other instruments when they land there.

Those on board were “dedicated professionals carrying out a vital mission in a demanding environment," U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Robert Davis, commander of Alaskan Command, the Alaskan North American Aerospace Defense Command Region and Eleventh Air Force, said in a statement.

“This is a devastating loss for our military family and the communities we serve,” Davis said.

Weather conditions were changing Thursday as heavy fog rolled through the area. An automated observation system not far from the airport reported a low cloud ceiling, fog and visibility of about 10 miles (16 kilometers) in the minutes before the crash, but the next update about 15 minutes after the crash showed visibility reduced dramatically to less than one-quarter mile (0.40 kilometer), according to Carrie Haisley, the meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service's Alaska sector operations center.

The airport is a private military site managed by the Pacific Air Forces Regional Support Center. It’s part of a network of remote radar sites that tracks aircraft operating in Alaska’s airspace and along its borders, the statement from Alaskan Command said.

The outpost at Cape Newenham closed in 1983 after a new radar was installed, and now the site is visited only occasionally by civilian contractors who perform maintenance on the system.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said the two employees who died were part of a “project delivery team en route to a project site in support of the U.S. Air Force.” The statement did not provide additional details about the work.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators were traveling to the scene Friday.

Investigators will want to know whether the pilots declared an emergency or whether the plane simply went missing before the crash, as well as the weather conditions at the time, said Mike O’Donnell, who oversaw airport safety programs and accident investigations for much of his 17 years at FAA.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska posted online that the flight was operated by Security Aviation, an airplane charter company based in Anchorage.

The company did not immediately respond Friday to an email seeking comment.

“I join Alaskans in offering condolences as we learn of the plane crash in Cape Newenham,” Murkowski posted Thursday night. “I’ve traveled extensively with Security Aviation throughout Alaska, and have met many of their experienced pilots."

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Associated Press writer Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this report. Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska.

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A total of 64 hatchlings recently made their way into the pool at the Islamorada home after apparently being led astray by the home’s bright lights.

Knowing the baby turtles would not survive in the chlorinated water, the homeowners contacted The Turtle Hospital for help.

All 64 hatchlings were rescued and taken to the facility, where they were cleaned up and given nourishment.

After spending several days recovering, the turtles were ready to return to the wild.

The hatchlings were released into the ocean, where they could be seen swimming away in the Gulf Stream — turning an unexpected backyard discovery into a successful rescue story.

Un total de 64 tortugas recién nacidas llegaron recientemente a la piscina de la vivienda en Islamorada después de aparentemente ser desviadas por las luces brillantes de la casa.

Sabiendo que las tortugas bebés no sobrevivirían en el agua con cloro, los propietarios de la vivienda contactaron a The Turtle Hospital para pedir ayuda.

Las 64 tortugas recién nacidas fueron rescatadas y llevadas a las instalaciones, donde fueron limpiadas y alimentadas.

Después de pasar varios días recuperándose, las tortugas estaban listas para regresar a su hábitat natural.

Las tortugas recién nacidas fueron liberadas en el océano, donde se las pudo ver nadando en la Corriente del Golfo, convirtiendo un hallazgo inesperado en un patio trasero en una exitosa historia de rescate.

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Police surrounded a home in the 1900 block of Northwest 115th Street, where they found a man who had been shot.

He was taken to a nearby hospital and is stable.

A woman who lives nearby said she heard at least four gunshots.

“When she opened up the door, we just heard ‘pop, pop, pop, pop,’” the neighbor said.

She said sometimes it can be difficult to tell whether a loud sound is gunfire or fireworks.

Police said the suspect shot through the front glass door of the home before getting into a car and taking off.

A sign reading “24 Hour Surveillance” was posted on the fence, and a camera was visible above the front door.

Neighbors said police were at the same home over the weekend.

Police have not released a description of the shooter and said the case remains under investigation.

La policía rodeó una vivienda en la cuadra 1900 de Northwest 115th Street, donde encontró a un hombre que había recibido disparos.

Fue trasladado a un hospital cercano y se encuentra estable.

Una mujer que vive cerca dijo que escuchó al menos cuatro disparos.

“Cuando ella abrió la puerta, solo escuchamos “pum, pum, pum, pum””, dijo la vecina.

Dijo que a veces puede ser difícil distinguir si un ruido fuerte es un disparo o fuegos artificiales.

La policía dijo que el sospechoso disparó a través de la puerta principal de vidrio de la vivienda antes de subir a un vehículo y huir.

Un letrero que decía “Vigilancia las 24 horas” estaba colocado en la cerca y una cámara era visible sobre la puerta principal.

Vecinos dijeron que la policía estuvo en la misma vivienda durante el fin de semana.

La policía no ha divulgado una descripción del tirador y dijo que el caso continúa bajo investigación.

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Shortly before 7:45 p.m., someone called 911 to report a shooting at the Marathon gas station, located at 220 S. Dixie Highway.

Deputies responded to the scene and found a man who had been shot. Customers told Local 10 News that the victim was the store clerk, but authorities did not immediately confirm that information.

Pompano Beach Fire Rescue transported the victim to an area hospital for treatment.

Detectives with BSO’s Crime Scene and Robbery Units are investigating.

According to investigators, a subject was located and detained.

The investigation continues.

Poco antes de las 7:45 p.m., alguien llamó al 911 para reportar una balacera en la gasolinera Marathon, ubicada en 220 S. Dixie Highway.

Agentes respondieron a la escena y encontraron a un hombre que había recibido disparos. Clientes dijeron a Local 10 News que la víctima era el empleado de la tienda, pero las autoridades no confirmaron de inmediato esa información.

Pompano Beach Fire Rescue trasladó a la víctima a un hospital del área para recibir tratamiento.

Detectives de las unidades de Escena del Crimen y Robos de BSO están investigando.

Según los investigadores, una persona fue localizada y detenida.

La investigación continúa.

With sparse details, President Donald Trump announced this week that the U.S. would be imposing an “unprecedented” level of economic warfare and isolation on Iran, aiming to force its leadership to cave to demands to end its nuclear program and fully reopen the crucial Strait of Hormuz to oil and natural gas tankers.

The Latest:

Trump awaits word from Supreme Court in case against his ballroom

The administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court last week to allow the White House to continue building Trump’s $400 million ballroom project while it appeals a lower court’s order to halt the work.

A divided federal appeals court panel ruled earlier this month that construction must stop because Congress hasn’t approved the project. That order to halt construction is set to go into effect Friday.

The Supreme Court has options. It can allow construction to continue while the case plays out. It can also leave the lower court ruling in place — meaning ballroom construction would have to stop — during the litigation.

US Capitol Police clear headquarters for suspicious vehicle

The U.S. Capitol Police briefly evacuated the agency’s Washington headquarters Friday morning and blocked off neighborhood roads when officers spotted what they called a “suspicious” vehicle in the same block as the headquarters.

The evacuation ended and roads reopened quickly after authorities checked out the vehicle without incident. The agency said it was a routine suspicious vehicle check that ended up being nothing.

Roads are closed and a swath of the National Mall is fenced and blocked off and the security level is heightened throughout D.C. because of the weekend’s Freedom 250 Grand Prix. The FBI did not immediately respond to a question about the current threat level in the city.

US and South Korean militaries wrap up drill early

The U.S. and South Korean militaries ended their annual drill six days earlier than initially scheduled Friday in a conciliatory gesture toward North Korea.

Trump had earlier abruptly ordered the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise just before it began Monday. Trump cited what he described as a good relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korea’s refusal to support him over the war in Iran.

The end of the drill comes after North Korea said such a step isn’t enough to persuade it to return to talks.

On Thursday, North Korea fired about 10 short-range ballistic missiles toward the sea, apparently following through with its previous threat to respond to the drills that it views as an invasion rehearsal.

Trump announces plan aimed at lowering beef prices

In a social media post Friday, the president said his administration will allow more beef to be imported into the U.S. without triggering a higher tariff rate that would otherwise go into effect.

The agreement, Trump said, allows up to 300,000 metric tons of ground beef to be brought into the U.S. for the next 90 days without activating an “out of quota” tariff.

The president said he had a commitment that the beef would be sold at 25% below current market rates, making beef cheaper for American consumers.

Trump did not say who the deal was with or what countries the beef will be imported from. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for more details.

An out-of-quota tariff is a higher tax that goes into effect once a certain quantity of that product enters the U.S.

Trump said the agreement would help rebuild the U.S. beef herd and ultimately help American ranchers. But the American cattle industry has in the past balked at Trump’s plans to import more foreign beef, such as his effort last year to bring in more beef from Argentina.

Trump to stump for Sen. Darline Graham days ahead of South Carolina’s GOP Senate runoff

Trump is scheduled to travel to South Carolina on Friday to make a last-minute appeal for Sen. Darline Graham, his chosen candidate to replace her brother, the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, ahead of a Republican runoff next week.

Voters will decide Tuesday whether Graham or Rep. Ralph Norman will be Republicans’ nominee on the November ballot.

The Myrtle Beach rally is the sort of campaign trail occasion that Trump hasn’t done as much of this year, compared with past midterms, making it a signal of the importance Trump is placing on a win for his pick.

It’s also an opportunity for the president to wade into friendly territory ahead of the midterm elections that leave his party’s control of Congress hanging in the balance. South Carolina hasn’t elected a Democrat statewide in decades, its House delegation has only one Democrat and Trump’s own victory in the 2016 presidential primary here helped propel him toward the nomination and ultimately the White House.

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Investigators seek interviews with Trump foes related to Mar-a-Lago search, AP sources say

Justice Department investigators have sought to interview law enforcement officials related to the FBI search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate as part of a Florida-based inquiry aiming to establish a conspiracy against the Republican president, multiple people familiar with the matter said Thursday.

The requests for interviews, made in recent weeks, suggest a conspiracy investigation that had mostly appeared focused on the decade-old question of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election is also examining a more contemporary event — the 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago that resulted in the FBI seizing top secret documents from the president’s Palm Beach estate.

The requests for voluntary interviews were not made through subpoenas, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation with The Associated Press.

It is not clear when or if prosecutors might seek to bring charges, or for what, but investigating conduct that occurred in Florida might give the Justice Department the legal hook it needs to try to anchor a prosecution in the state.

— Eric Tucker and Alanna Durkin Richer

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World shares are mixed and US futures edge higher, while oil prices slip

World shares were mixed Friday after a retreat on Wall Street as a U.S. Treasury Department plan to boost its government debt buybacks appeared to have only limited capacity to calm markets.

The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.3%.

The Treasury Department announced Wednesday that it will at least double the size of its planned purchases of longer-term government debt, while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent signaled Thursday that the repurchase program could be larger.

The announcement temporarily brought down government bond yields, which have been elevated under concerns about high inflation partly caused by the war in Iran and rising U.S. government debt. Higher yields tend to slow the broader economy because of increased borrowing costs across the financial system and can undercut stock prices.

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Trump warns of ‘economic D-Day’ against Iran, but Tehran is well acquainted with sanctions

Nearing the six-month mark of the Iran war and facing diminishing stockpiles of key weapons, the Trump administration is touting a crushing financial campaign against Tehran, promising an “economic D-Day” against a country that has so far withstood nearly five decades of punishing American sanctions.

With sparse details, President Donald Trump announced this week that the U.S. would be imposing an “unprecedented” level of economic warfare and isolation on Iran, aiming to force its leadership to cave to demands to end its nuclear program and fully reopen the crucial Strait of Hormuz to oil and natural gas tankers.

It reflects the dire reality Trump faces with an increasingly unpopular war he can’t seem to end just months before pivotal midterm elections that will decide whether his Republican Party keeps control of Congress. Whether out of desperation or strategy, the president is refocusing America’s might on bringing Iran to its knees through an accelerated sanctions campaign against one of the most economically penalized countries in the world.

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The project at the park located at 10411 SW 122nd Ave. began nearly two years ago and was supposed to be completed in July 2025. Now, in August 2026, there is still no completion date in sight.

The delays have affected children at a nearby school as well as football players and cheerleaders who normally use the park.

“Unfortunately, it kept getting delayed and getting delayed, and now we’re going on year two,” parent Kenid Joseph said.

Joseph has two children who attend a school next to the field. She said students have been unable to use it for physical education classes.

“It’s very, very frustrating, especially being a taxpayer of this area,” Joseph said.

Youth sports teams feel impact of delays

The prolonged closure is also taking a toll on the Hammocks Warriors.

Priscilla Martinez, cheerleading coach and director for the organization, said participation has suffered.

“Our teams are just shrinking because of it,” Martinez said.

With much of the field fenced off, Martinez said her cheerleaders have been forced to practice on a small patch of available space near the construction area.

Football teams are also facing challenges.

Mike Pintado, president and football commissioner for Kendall Hammocks, said teams are being sent to multiple locations for their games.

“We are going to be playing our games at five different locations this year,” Pintado said.

Soil, drainage issues complicate project

Local 10 learned that the project previously encountered an issue involving arsenic in the soil, which officials said has been addressed.

Now, drainage is an issue. The field can flood when it rains, creating safety concerns for children.

The contractor on the approximately $3 million project is Gonzalez and Sons.

Local 10 requested an interview with the mayor, but she declined. Instead, the county’s Parks and Recreation Department provided a statement addressing the continued closure.

“The field cannot reopen until we confirm that recent improvements meet project specifications and are safe for public use,” the statement read in part. “We are working with the contractor on a permanent solution.”

When Local 10 arrived at the park at about 8:30 a.m., there appeared to be little activity at the construction site.

Joseph pointed to the lack of visible work as another source of frustration.

“How many construction trucks do you hear? Do you hear any work going on?” Local 10 News reporter Jeff Derderian asked Joseph.

“Do we count invisible people?” Joseph asked.

For families who have now spent nearly two years waiting, the biggest question remains when the field will finally reopen.

Local 10 also reached out to Gonzalez and Sons seeking an update on when the project is expected to be completed, but had not received a response at the time of publishing.

El proyecto en el parque ubicado en 10411 SW 122nd Ave. comenzó hace casi dos años y se suponía que estaría terminado en julio de 2025. Ahora, en agosto de 2026, todavía no hay una fecha de finalización a la vista.

Los retrasos han afectado a niños de una escuela cercana, así como a jugadores de fútbol americano y porristas que normalmente utilizan el parque.

“Desafortunadamente, siguió retrasándose y retrasándose, y ahora vamos camino al segundo año”, dijo la madre Kenid Joseph.

Joseph tiene dos hijos que asisten a una escuela junto al campo. Dijo que los estudiantes no han podido utilizarlo para las clases de educación física.

“Es muy, muy frustrante, especialmente siendo contribuyente de esta área”, dijo Joseph.

Equipos deportivos juveniles sienten el impacto de los retrasos

El prolongado cierre también está afectando a los Hammocks Warriors.

Priscilla Martinez, entrenadora de porristas y directora de la organización, dijo que la participación se ha visto afectada.

“Nuestros equipos simplemente se están reduciendo debido a esto”, dijo Martinez.

Con gran parte del campo cercado, Martinez dijo que sus porristas se han visto obligadas a practicar en un pequeño espacio disponible cerca del área de construcción.

Los equipos de fútbol americano también enfrentan dificultades.

Mike Pintado, presidente y comisionado de fútbol americano de Kendall Hammocks, dijo que los equipos están siendo enviados a múltiples lugares para sus partidos.

“Vamos a jugar nuestros partidos en cinco lugares diferentes este año”, dijo Pintado.

Problemas con el suelo y el drenaje complican el proyecto

Local 10 se enteró de que el proyecto anteriormente enfrentó un problema relacionado con arsénico en el suelo, que según funcionarios ya fue solucionado.

Ahora, el drenaje es un problema. El campo puede inundarse cuando llueve, lo que genera preocupaciones de seguridad para los niños.

El contratista del proyecto de aproximadamente $3 millones USD es Gonzalez and Sons.

Local 10 solicitó una entrevista con la alcaldesa, pero ella se negó. En su lugar, el Departamento de Parques y Recreación del condado proporcionó una declaración sobre el cierre continuo.

“El campo no puede reabrir hasta que confirmemos que las mejoras recientes cumplen con las especificaciones del proyecto y son seguras para el uso público”, indicó en parte la declaración. “Estamos trabajando con el contratista en una solución permanente”.

Cuando Local 10 llegó al parque alrededor de las 8:30 a.m., parecía haber poca actividad en el sitio de construcción.

Joseph señaló la falta de trabajo visible como otra fuente de frustración.

“¿Cuántos camiones de construcción escucha? ¿Escucha algún trabajo en marcha?”, preguntó a Joseph el reportero de Local 10 News Jeff Derderian.

“¿Contamos a personas invisibles?”, preguntó Joseph.

Para las familias que ya llevan casi dos años esperando, la mayor pregunta sigue siendo cuándo finalmente reabrirá el campo.

Local 10 también se comunicó con Gonzalez and Sons para solicitar una actualización sobre cuándo se espera que termine el proyecto, pero no había recibido respuesta al momento de la publicación.

El FDLE anunció el jueves el arresto de Pearlandria Boujolly. Está acusada de un cargo de homicidio involuntario agravado de un menor de 18 años.

Según el FDLE, la investigación comenzó el 3 de enero, cuando la policía de Miami y paramédicos de Miami Fire Rescue respondieron aproximadamente a las 3:50 a.m. a un reporte de un niño pequeño que no respondía.

El niño fue trasladado al Jackson Memorial Hospital, donde fue declarado muerto poco después.

Una autopsia realizada por el Departamento del Médico Forense del Condado Miami-Dade encontró fentanilo y una cantidad mínima de cocaína en la sangre del niño, según el FDLE.

Investigadores dicen que dejaron drogas en una habitación sin llave

Investigadores del FDLE dijeron que habían dejado narcóticos dentro de una habitación sin llave en la vivienda donde fue encontrada la víctima.

Los investigadores determinaron que el niño ingirió accidentalmente una pequeña cantidad de las drogas que estaban en esa habitación.

Según el FDLE, Boujolly no estaba dentro de la vivienda cuando el niño consumió las drogas.

La investigación involucró al Grupo de Trabajo South Florida State Assistance for Fentanyl Eradication, o S.A.F.E., del FDLE y al Departamento de Policía de Miami.

“Cuando los efectos mortales del fentanilo golpean a nuestras comunidades, especialmente a nuestros niños, el FDLE y nuestros socios estamos más motivados que nunca a utilizar todos los recursos de investigación disponibles para responsabilizar a todos los involucrados”, dijo Michael Stein, agente especial a cargo del FDLE en Miami.

El jefe de la Policía de Miami, Edwin Lopez, calificó la muerte de la víctima como “una tragedia desgarradora y completamente prevenible”.

“Este arresto envía un mensaje claro: hay cero tolerancia para la negligencia que pone en riesgo la vida de un niño inocente”, dijo Lopez.

La fiscal estatal de Miami-Dade, Katherine Fernandez Rundle, también se refirió al arresto y lo calificó como “un día desgarrador cuando un niño pierde la vida dentro de su propio hogar debido a la imprudencia de uno de sus padres y a drogas peligrosas dejadas al alcance”.

Arrestan a mujer meses después de la muerte del niño

El FDLE dijo que agentes del Grupo de Trabajo S.A.F.E. del sur de Florida y la policía de Miami arrestaron a Boujolly en su vivienda de Miami-Dade el jueves.

Luego fue trasladada al Centro de Detención Turner Guilford Knight.

El FDLE indicó que podrían presentarse cargos adicionales.

Hasta la mañana del viernes, Boujolly permanecía detenida en TGK con una fianza de $55,000 USD. Los registros de la cárcel en línea muestran que enfrenta un cargo de uso fraudulento de una tarjeta de crédito en un caso separado.

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According to police, officers received two ShotSpotter alerts at about 12:15 a.m. Friday, and set up a perimeter along Northwest Seventh Avenue between Northwest 52nd and Northwest 54th streets as they investigated.

When officers arrived, they continued to hear additional gunfire in the area, according to police.

Officers later made contact with a victim who told investigators that a man had been shooting at him.

Police also discovered a vehicle at the scene that had been struck by multiple rounds.

Despite the gunfire, authorities said no injuries were reported.

Police have not released information about a possible suspect or what may have led to the shooting.

The investigation remains ongoing.

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

Those that survived are doing well, fattening up in time not just for fall and hibernation season but … drumroll, please … the very first Fat Marmot Week.

Just like Fat Bear Week, an online contest to vote for Alaskan brown bears plumped up for winter, Fat Marmot Week — beginning Monday — is mostly just for fun, but it also has a serious side: Scientists need to drum up donations for their long-running research into the rodents to keep it going through federal funding cuts.

“In some sense, we’re going to be laughing our way down as the Titanic sinks,” said Dan Blumstein, leader of the project launched decades ago at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Gothic, Colorado. “Because what else are you going to do?”

But wait. What’s a marmot?

A marmot is a cat-sized, furry ground squirrel that lives in burrows in North America, Europe and Asia. The 15 or so species worldwide include groundhogs, which have their own special day, Feb. 2, in the U.S. and Canada.

In the Rocky Mountains, yellow-bellied marmots are plentiful. Hikers often spot these charismatic creatures perched on boulders or scurrying through wildflowers.

Marmots aren't shy near trails popular with people. Watch out: A bold one might swipe your snack.

Like people, marmots have personalities and are “flexibly social,” meaning some like to intermingle in colonies of up to 30 animals while others prefer solitude, according to Emily Renkey, a master’s program student at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“We kind of understand these marmots just by looking at them sometimes, because we can kind of tell who’s who just by how they behave and how they interact with one another,” said Katie Adler, a UCLA doctoral student.

Some marmots are difficult to study because they are wary of researchers' efforts to trap them using wire boxes baited with an enticing mixture of oats and peanut butter, Renkey said.

“Others, you could trap three or four times in the same morning,” she said.

Marmots are big-time snoozers

While hibernating bears snooze in a state called torpor, allowing them to wake up — or be woken up — every now and then, marmots slip into a far deeper form of hibernation. Their body temperature drops from about that of a human to as low as 41 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius), not much warmer than their burrows in winter.

“You pick up a hibernating marmot and it’s this fuzzy ball and it feels like a cold rock with fur. It’s completely surreal,” Blumstein said. “They breathe once a minute or two.”

To prepare for winter, the animals do a tremendous amount of fattening. They double their weight to as much as 13 pounds (6 kilograms), then lose all of that bulk during half a year or more of hibernation.

“Marmots come out of the ground really skinny, relative to what they look like now, at least,” Adler said.

A poor snowpack affects more than the ski season

Last winter, scant snowfall and warm temperatures due to global warming deprived many Colorado marmots of an insulating blanket of snow over their burrows. Researchers believe their hibernation quarters got too chilly, causing many to die of cold.

“We had over 160 animals and we ended with 60 at the start of this season,” Blumstein said. “Most of them died because of the lack of snow cover.”

This year’s snowpack was the worst on record in the Upper Colorado River Basin, which includes Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico. Human-caused climate change made the snow drought about 14 times more likely, a new study confirms.

Hundreds of researchers at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory have observed changes including fewer bees and other pollinators, and sagebrush encroaching in valleys once dominated by wildflowers.

Precipitation changes, meanwhile, literally cascade downstream to where farmers and communities need water to survive.

“The snowmelt here impacts the Colorado River which impacts our drinking water," Renkey said. “What happens in these mountains doesn’t stay in these mountains. It impacts all of us.”

Mouseketeers, musketeers and marmoteers

The study in Gothic, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Aspen, is run by researchers from UCLA and the University of Ottawa in Ontario. It was launched in 1962, making it one of the world’s longest-running studies of individual mammals.

The marmot researchers affectionately call themselves “marmoteers.”

“It allows graduate students and other people to come in and suddenly capitalize on this knowledge and ask questions. Without doing all the grunt work,” Blumstein said.

Funding cuts have caused Blumstein’s UCLA department to lose one-third of its graduate students. Fat Marmot Week is one approach to attract interest — and hopefully donations — to keep the work going. Among the rodents on display: Stonehenge, who chirps at mountain bikers; and Citroen, whose mate is a leader of this matriarchal marmot motherland. Voting opens Monday.

The researchers have also been posting marmot videos to the OnlyFans adult content platform. To capitalize on the attention those posts have garnered, a "super fan" created a meme coin, a type of cryptocurrency, called $OnlyMarms, and donates transaction fees to the research program. That alone has raised around $100,000.

The team needs to bank three years of funding — over $200,000 — to ensure marmot research can continue next summer.

“People have to find funding in ways that we’ve never really thought of before,” Adler said. “Like reaching out to the broader community to get people engaged.”

___

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.

The incident south of the coastal city of Cuxhaven came to an end as the animal's owner intervened to secure the animal, Cuxhaven police said in a statement.

Passersby noticed the donkey, whose name is Freddy, and a horse were running loose at a roundabout in the town of Holssel. The motorists tried to secure the donkey, which “became very aggressive” and jumped into the van.

The 33-year-old woman who tried to help required hospital treatment, while the motorists sustained minor injuries, the police statement said.

“The reason for the animal’s aggressive reaction is still unclear,” the statement said.

The BackBlack initiative has directed more than $12 million toward Black-led nonprofits over the past three years, according to founder Floyd Jones. A GivingTuesday -style campaign that runs in August, the appeal invites online donation platforms to center typically underfunded, Black-led nonprofits. Last year's efforts drew more than 130,000 unique donors, according to Jones, with the majority of their gifts falling under $100.

This year, for the first time, organizers are also leveraging content creators to reach a new audience: Black Gen Zers. The goal is to show that philanthropy belongs to them, too — not just the historically wealthier and predominantly white charitable institutions that tend to dominate narratives about philanthropy.

“Our people have always taken care of our people," Jones said. “I want people to feel empowered.”

The campaign could bring a boost for smaller, Black-led organizations that, according to research released earlier this year, saw no significant changes to their funding after the racial reckoning of 2020. Only a subset of larger nonprofits got temporary increases in the years that followed, according to an analysis by Candid and ABFE.

BackBlack aims to flip that narrative from one of “deficit” to one of abundance. Jones is heartened by the example of Madam C.J. Walker, a Black beauty entrepreneur widely considered America's first female self-made millionaire. She supported Black educational efforts such as Booker T. Washington's Tuskegee Institute and African American branches of the YMCA. She also contributed to the NAACP 's anti-lynching fund shortly before her death in 1919.

Jones doesn't care if today's donors have millions in their bank accounts, though. “It's about doing your best,” he said.

One of BackBlack's partnering creators pointed to the Free African Society. The nondenominational Philadelphia group, founded in 1787 by Black leaders Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, was one of the country's first mutual aid organizations.

“We've always had to pool our money and resources to help each other," said Ernest Crim III, a former schoolteacher who posts Black history videos for his 118,000 Instagram followers.

But, he added, allies must also pitch in — especially in communities that “might not have the sustainable market or income to consistently give.”

Crim is asking followers to support Black nonprofits that work on issues of youth employment. Other participating pages are focused on nonprofits providing sports access, improving health outcomes and ensuring civil rights.

Matching up to $6,000 in donations is For Good, a charitable giving platform that helps move money from more than 20,000 donor-advised funds to over a million nonprofits filtered by ZIP code. GivingTuesday manages BackBlack's data, Jones said. Other partners include online fundraising platforms GiveButter, Every.org, Bonterra and Fundraise Up.

For Good provides back end infrastructure for consumer-based campaigns including YouTube's fundraising pages and Patagonia's point-of-sale donations. The creator-driven donation strategy stemmed from the platform’s success with YouTubers who launch fundraisers for the issues they discuss in their videos.

Grassroots fundraisers face competing headwinds, according to For Good interim president Tamara Mahal. The concentration of wealth has increased the share of high net worth individuals in the donor pool. But, she said, there are more ways than ever to give locally from the bottom up.

She welcomes the BackBlack campaign's efforts to include more small-dollar givers so that nonprofits aren't overly beholden to any one individual benefactor.

“The cause is important in and of itself. Find a nonprofit that’s doing work in your community," she said. “And that will actually help us to diversify.”

Kaci Patterson is the founder of Social Good Solutions, a social impact consulting firm that works with funders to build support for Black-led organizations outside of “trend funding.” She finds that Black Philanthropy Month, celebrated in August, is a reminder that philanthropy is more than just “institutional” giving “held within the walls of wealth and power.”

It was fish fries and chicken dinners, she noted, that funded alternative transportation systems during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Growing up, her own family received groceries from their community during times of hardship.

“That was philanthropy. That was someone else looking at us and investing in us and wanting us to be whole and wanting us to be well," she said. “We've always had this kind of ‘we got us’ philanthropy. Let’s step into that role more confidently."

___

Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

High energy, precise choreography and relentless athleticism were on display as more than three dozen dancers brought the heat on the court, hoping to walk away as a Miami Heat dancer.

Inside the arena, decades of tradition were on the line as the final round of auditions for the Miami Heat dancers, presented by AT&T, took place at Kaseya Center.

Out of hundreds of dancers who lined up for open calls, only 33 made it through the rigorous weeklong boot camp.

By the end of the night, 20 would walk away victorious.

The judges weren’t just looking for sharp moves.

With limited spots available on the official roster, the competition was fierce and the pressure was high, even for returning dancers.

For these dancers, the final audition represented years of training condensed into a single performance.

By the end of the evening, a dream would become reality for the newest members of the Miami Heat family.

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Police say one of the town’s oldest buildings, the Chapel of the Holy Spirit, was defaced with upside-down crosses and other anti-Christian graffiti.

Police are asking the public for help identifying the vandals.

“I’m sickened. It’s very sickening to me. I imagine most people are disgusted by it,” Lantana Mayor Karen Lythgoe said.

Police are working to find out who took a late-night trip around Lantana with a spray paint bottle, vandalizing several locations.

“Who does something like this? Someone who is not a good person,” Lantana resident Cindy Sousa said.

“I used to be a teacher in the monetary priest school. It’s heartbreaking to see this,” Sousa added. “It’s disgusting to see the side of that building decimated like that.”

A few blocks away, a memorial for fallen police officers was also desecrated. The word “pigs” was painted on the stone.

“These are people that gave their lives serving the community,” Lythgoe said.

Across the street from the memorial, more graffiti was found on the back of an abandoned strip mall. A Burger King dumpster was also vandalized.

Assistant Chief Daniel Navas with the Lantana Police Department said investigators believe the incidents happened at some point over the weekend.

“We’re not leaving any leaves unturned. We’re exploring every option,” Navas said.

No arrests have been made.

“We’re outraged and we’re committed to locating and holding those accountable who damaged the memorial,” Navas said.

The fallen officers memorial has since been restored, with the paint scrubbed away.

Lythgoe said the community came together to create the memorial out of respect.

“We should all be coming together, not destroying the communities we live in,” she said. “There’s no point in defacing property.”

Police are asking people to check their security and Ring cameras for any information that could help identify the vandals.

Anyone with information is urged to contact the Lantana Police Department.

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Lifeguard Marcelo Lorenzo was on vacation on Aug. 11 when he said a speedboat-towed tube crashed into an anchored catamaran, seriously injuring several of his family members.

Two tubes were traveling alongside one another when the boat made a wide turn, sending one tube crashing at high speed into an anchored catamaran, according to officials.

Several of Lorenzo’s family members were thrown into the water and hurt.

With no emergency responders immediately available, Lorenzo said he relied on his training as a professional lifeguard and sprang into action.

According to Lorenzo, he found his father trapped beneath the catamaran and pulled him toward a ladder, helping him to safety, and he also found his cousin unconscious and face-down in the water.

He checked for a pulse and kept her afloat until employees aboard the catamaran could help get her out of the water.

“I remember swimming over there, I was like, ‘This is scary’ and I was thinking the worst,” he said. “I didn’t know if they were dead or possibly really hurt, and I just knew I had to get over there as soon as possible and go help them out.”

Hollywood Fire Rescue says Lorenzo’s quick thinking, courage and training helped save lives during an extraordinary emergency.

Officials say his response demonstrated how professional lifeguard training and preparedness can make a difference when seconds count.

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The monument, meant to honor the children of Pedro Pan, is cracked, broken, disfigured and covered with ants.

Between 1960-1962, Operation Peter Pan helped thousands of Cuban children escape the rise of Fidel Castro and safely reach Miami.

Neighbors near Southwest 13th Avenue and 21st Street say the condition of the monument is disrespectful.

Miami Commissioner Rolando Escalona said the monument was neglected for many years but is now in the process of being repaired and moved.

Escalona said the monument will be added to a newer memorial created by his predecessor as part of a larger beautification project.

Documents obtained by Local 10 show the project also calls for relocating other historic Cuban monuments, including the Manuel Varona memorial at Triangle Park near Brickell and the Máximo Gómez bust at Domino Park.

The monuments would be placed at the recently opened Peter Pan memorial on Cuban Memorial Boulevard near Southwest Eighth Street, about a mile from the neglected monument.

Escalona said bringing the monuments together would allow people to see more of Cuban history in one place. City officials also hope the relocation will provide more visibility and safety.

But some neighbors do not want the monument moved.

One woman, who asked not to be shown on camera, said the monument is a reminder of her community’s history and sacrifice and should stay where it is.

She said it is in the right place and should simply receive the maintenance it deserves.

City officials told Local 10 News the work to repair and relocate won’t begin until 2027.

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On Thursday, Local 10 News received an inside look of what state officials left behind when they demobilized the facility earlier this summer.

“This is essentially what is left of the operation,” Miami-Dade Chief Resilience Officer Loren Parra said while touring the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport. “This is where there were grounded poles for the fencing and operational infrastructure, but here, where you see the different colors, is everything that has been filled in since demobilization.”

Parra showed what remains of the swiftly constructed immigration detention facility now that the state has formally returned the property to Miami-Dade County.

“The entirety of the operations were hosted here, specifically on this platform here on this runway, and you can still see areas where there was previously infrastructure, mostly some fencing,” Parra said.

County officials said new pavement was laid as part of the operation.

“So here you can see clearly the difference,” Parra said. “This was the existing pavement according to our aviation department here in Miami-Dade, and this is the new pavement that was part of the operation. And what was here before was really just hard-pack fill.”

A row of fence post patching marks the detention center’s perimeter fence.

“This is where you had the fencing located across all those little holes,” Parra said.

Parra said there are two different ways to fill the holes from infrastructure that was previously on the site.

“A lot of the areas you have seen were hot patched,” Parra said. “Here we are coming upon some of the cold patch areas. We need to make sure that they are all hot patched so that this runway can hold the weight of airplanes coming in, so making sure that these are all repaired properly is part of the corrective action that we are asking the state for.”

Remaining asphalt also needs to be addressed, Parra said.

“This is remaining asphalt, and as part of the corrective actions through our environmental report, we are asking that the state properly remove and dispose of everything that is left here,” Parra said.

With an aim to aid the Trump administration’s need for more federal detention beds as part of its mass deportation plan, the state of Florida commandeered the remote property located within Big Cypress National Preserve under emergency powers, trucking in infrastructure needs from fencing and a provisional sewer collection system to industrial lighting and fuel.

“As soon as we were able to gain access to the site, the Department of Environmental Resource Management actually came out here and started to conduct its field tests,” Parra said.

They took soil and water samples over the course of three different visits and “conducted field assessments across multiple dates to identify any areas of environmental concern,” Parra explained to Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava in a recent memo.

“What is important to remember is because of the speed and the manner in which the operation came about, the department wasn’t able to have any baseline data of what the site looked like before the operations, but based on the sampling we were able to take and all of the historical records that we were able to find both between Miami-Dade and Collier County, at this moment in time there are no environmental impacts here at this site,” Parra said.

In a memo to the mayor, dated Aug. 18, Parra explained that “visual inspections and laboratory results do not provide evidence for any violation of the Miami-Dade County Environmental Protection Code, Chapter 24. Any remaining stockpiles of reclaimed asphalt pavement must be properly gathered, disposed of, and removed from the property.”

Levine Cava told Local 10 News the property is critical for habitat and water flow and should be preserved.

“We know that this property is very critical for habitat, for the water flow, for really as part of an area that needs to be preserved. It’s already part of the preservation area officially, so that is what we are pursuing. That was my intention originally, and we had this little interruption of a year, but our plans are to continue moving forward to find a permanent conservation home for these essential properties,” Levine Cava said. “My intention is for it to be permanently protected as a conservation area, and we are going to proceed to make that happen.”

Parra said the ultimate goal is to convey the land into permanent conservation.

“So really all of the operations, both the environmental testing, the aviation reports, are all in an effort to make sure that we can convey these lands in conservation for perpetuity,” Parra said.

Until those corrective actions are taken and county leaders make a decision on the future of the site, the runway will remain closed, officials said.

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In a judgment Friday, Justice Matthew Nicklin said in a written statement that the payment to Associated Newspapers Ltd. will have to be made by Aug. 28. The payment is at the upper end of expectations and marks a vindication for the journalists at the Daily Mail and a defeat for the losing claimants and their lawyers.

The claimants lost a High Court case in London last month during which they had alleged malpractice, such as the illegal hacking of phones, on the part of Associated Newspapers.

The other high-profile figures behind the case were Doreen Lawrence, the anti‑racism activist whose son Stephen was stabbed to death in 1993 as he waited for a bus; Elton John’s film producer husband David Furnish; actors Sadie Frost and Liz Hurley; and politician Simon Hughes. Lawrence’s costs are expected to be covered by the others.

In excoriating comments accompanying his award, Nicklin said “several features” were important in his decision, including the “speculative” nature of the claims and the failure of the claimants to “voluntarily” withdraw serious allegations that could no longer be backed up.

“The conduct was unreasonable to a high degree,” he said.

Claimants face additional 25-million-pound charge

The publisher has said it incurred more than 34 million pounds during the case. Should it pursue the claimants for the remainder of the costs, and get the necessary legal approval to do so, then Harry and the six others will be liable for a further 25 million pounds or so.

The claimants took out insurance for around half of that total, in line with the budget estimates provided at the outset by the lawyers working for Associated Newspapers.

Though the judge said the costs appeared “excessive,” he said he would not impose a cap that would have limited the claimants' liabilities as it would have been “too broad brushed, would risk unfairness, and would be vulnerable to the charge that it was arbitrary.”

The amount that will be paid could well be determined in the future by costs judges, specialists who assess and determine financial outcomes in civil litigation when parties cannot agree.

David Bailey-Vella, chairman of the Association of Costs Lawyers, said the ruling “could not have gone much worse” for the claimants.

He said the claimants will "surely try again before the costs judges to try and show they relied on Associated’s original budget when buying the insurance and so should not have to pay more.”

Hughes, a former member of the centrist Liberal Democrats, said he was “disappointed and surprised” that Associated Newspapers’ recoverable costs were not limited.

None of the other claimants have yet commented on the judge's decision. They have until Oct. 2 to decide whether to appeal.

Harry and the rest had failed to even win one of 97 claims

The publisher had strongly denied the claims made during the 11-week trial in London earlier this year. In his July 7 judgment, Nicklin said there had been a shortage of evidence to support the 97 claims and found there was a possibility that the reporting came from legitimate sources.

In a statement following the decision, Associated Newspapers said the judgment is a “devastating critique of an attempt to destroy a newspaper and the reputations of its journalists, editors and executives."

“The truth is that these outrageous claims should never have been brought," it said. "That they were pursued raises disturbing questions about the conduct of elements of the legal profession.”

Cost verdict comes days after Harry's bombshell UK return news

The judgment comes two days after it was made public that Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, are moving back to the U.K. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who are no longer working royals, decamped to California more than six years ago but will relocate back later this month to live in a nonroyal residence outside London.

Harry's defeat against Associated Newspapers brought an end to a trio of lawsuits accusing tabloid publishers of using unlawful tactics, such as phone hacking or hiring private detectives to dig up dirt on his life.

Harry won a judgment in 2023 that condemned the publishers of the Daily Mirror for “widespread and habitual” phone hacking. Last year, Rupert Murdoch’s flagship U.K. tabloid, The Sun, made an unprecedented apology for intruding on his life for years and agreed to pay substantial damages to settle his privacy invasion lawsuit.

Harry has said his litigation — in which he broke with royal family tradition to seek relief in the courts — was a primary source of his falling out with his father, King Charles III, and brother Prince William.

His grudge with the tabloids runs deep and his legal actions are part of his larger quest to reform the news media that he says damaged his relationships and made him “ paranoid beyond belief.”

He blames the press for the death of his mother, Princess Diana, who was killed in a car crash in 1997 while being pursued by paparazzi in Paris, and for attacks on his wife, Meghan, that led the couple to abandon royal life and move to the United States in 2020.

Ambassador Ernesto Soberón Guzmán, in an interview this week with The Associated Press, directed his question to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the main architect of the Trump administration’s Cuba policy:

“What are you afraid of? If you are so convinced that the Cuban government is an incompetent government, why do you need to implement almost every two weeks new sanctions?”

The U.S. State Department responded to a request for comment with a quote from Rubio saying new sanctions will continue to be announced every couple of weeks to close off “escape valves that they’re trying to create in every mechanism.”

Then on Thursday, the U.S. imposed more economic penalties on Cuban industries, targeting state-owned mining, metal and construction companies.

Cuba has been pushed to the brink by an oil blockade imposed by the United States in January on top of a decades-old embargo, coupled with the escalating sanctions. The moves by President Donald Trump’s administration, meant to put pressure on the government by depriving it of funding, have worsened already debilitating blackouts, cut workers off from public transport, crippled infrastructure and deepened shortages in medicine and food in the Caribbean island nation.

Guzmán said the sanctions are the main obstacle to Cuba opening up its economy. He said the impact of the U.S. measures — specifically the shortage of electricity and lack of fuel to run a business or travel — has turned off investors and tourists, a major source of Cuba’s income.

Some companies have pulled out of Cuba, including the Spanish hotel chain Meliá, which relied on tourist revenue and cited “significant operational, legal, economic and financial difficulties” in explaining its decision to leave.

”Literally, the United States has done everything imaginable to try to prevent foreign investors," said William LeoGrande, a professor at American University and a leading expert on U.S.-Cuba relations. ”When they say, `Well, we want to see Cuba open up to foreign investment,’ they’re being disingenuous. ... It’s not possible for them to succeed without some kind of sanctions relief.”

The goal of Trump’s Republican administration, he said, is “not just to open up Cuba economically but to overthrow the Cuban government — to change the nature of the Cuban political system.”

Cuba announces major economic shift

John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, said Cuba had to make changes when it lost its economic lifeline with the U.S. ouster in January of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.

“The result is the Cuban government in the last eight months made more commercial, economic and financial changes to the country than they have as a group since the revolution,” he said.

Nonetheless, the Trump administration keeps ratcheting up sanctions, putting more pressure on Cuba, which is responding by making more changes, Kavulich said.

“But from our standpoint, there are two parts missing: One is Cuba implementing by regulation everything that it’s announced, and secondly, the Trump administration allowing U.S. companies to have more access to the Cuban marketplace while these changes are underway,” he said.

The changes announced by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel in June aim to significantly shift Cuba’s economy and industry, which have been strictly controlled by the socialist government since the 1959 revolution.

They include more space for private businesses, imports and exports without the state as an intermediary, free hiring of personnel, authorization for private banks, investment by Cubans abroad and opportunities for fast-food chains to establish themselves on the island.

Guzmán said there are opportunities for investments in real estate, solar farms and energy to help ease the country’s electricity shortage, as well as in marinas and the tourism industry.

Christopher Hernandez-Roy, acting director of the Americas program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, recalled that the last economic opening under President Barack Obama’s Democratic administration “was later throttled by the Cubans themselves, who feared that the opening went too far and appeared to threaten political control.”

Today, he said, it appears the Cubans really do want economic reforms and outside investment. Díaz-Canel’s economic reforms are not impossible, but U.S. sanctions “significantly constrain their prospects for success,” Hernandez-Roy said.

He noted the irony that U.S. pressure ”is helping push the Cubans toward greater economic liberalization out of necessity, while simultaneously limiting the resources and access necessary for those reforms to actually improve the economy.”

Rubio says Cuba’s leaders ‘don’t know what they’re doing’

In late June, after the reforms were announced, the U.S. slapped sanctions on five state companies, three linked to a business conglomerate run by Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces. Best known as GAESA, it is believed to command nearly 40% of Cuba’s gross domestic product.

Rubio, a former U.S. senator from Florida whose parents were born in Cuba, did not appear to be impressed by the newly announced economic changes. He last month called Cuba “a failed state” with “a bad economic model.” He said Cuba’s leaders “don’t know what they’re doing” and “don’t know how to fix their economy.”

“I think the challenge that Cuba has faced for the last 15 years is they want to somewhat improve their economy, but they’re afraid that if they improve it too much they’ll lose political control over people,” he said.

The United States is prepared “to do what we can do to effectuate a positive change in Cuba because it directly impacts our national security” since it is only 90 miles (145 kilometers) from the U.S. mainland, Rubio said. “And we want Cuba to be prosperous. We want Cuba to be free.”

The Cuban ambassador said implementing the economic changes would be far easier without the sanctions, if American companies were involved in Cuba and if trade between the two countries was possible.

He said the good news is that talks are taking place between the United States and Cuba. He declined to give details of what he called “very sensitive conversations.”

“But the point here is that even when Cuba is changing a lot,” Guzmán said, “the U.S. government keeps the same policy of aggression towards the Cuban people.”

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Follow the AP’s coverage of Cuba at https://apnews.com/hub/cuba.

The fires are concentrated on Borneo, the world’s third-largest island shared by Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. Indonesia occupies about three-quarters of the island, where more than 5,000 hot spots were recorded by the country's Forestry Ministry.

The blazes have blanketed parts of Kalimantan in choking haze, reducing visibility to just 1 meter to 10 meters (yards) in some areas, according to local media reports. The smoke has contributed to traffic accidents and delayed several flights.

Television footage showed roads, buildings and public facilities obscured by smoke, with motorists forced to drive with headlights on during daylight hours. Residents, including schoolchildren, were seen wearing masks while walking outside.

An intensifying El Nino pattern and a prolonged dry season have fueled the fires, generating dense smoke that crossed into Malaysia, according to Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency.

Malaysia’s eastern state of Sarawak has been among the hardest hit. One district recorded “very unhealthy” air quality Friday, while eight others posted unhealthy readings, prompting the closure of nearly 600 schools and affecting about 200,000 students, the Sarawak government said.

On Borneo, Central Kalimantan Police Chief Iwan Kurniawan said investigators have detained 12 suspects linked to alleged arson and illegal land clearing in the past week.

“Every forest and land fire incident in Central Kalimantan is investigated,” Kurniawan said, adding that authorities were working to determine the causes of the fires and identify those responsible.

Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni, who visited fire-hit areas near the provincial capital of Palangka Raya on Wednesday, vowed strict action against offenders.

“Whoever they are, big or small, without exception, anyone who destroys nature and forests will face strict legal action,” Antoni said.

Social media was flooded with complaints from residents describing breathing difficulties and fears of illness.

In total, Indonesia’s Forestry Ministry detected 11,908 hot spots nationwide in the previous 24 hours, up from 6,352 a day earlier.

Forest-monitoring platform Nusantara Atlas said about 182,000 hectares (450,000 acres) burned in July alone, nearly double the area scorched during the first half of the year. The total area burned this year has reached about 285,000 hectares (704,000 acres).

Indonesia regularly experiences transboundary haze during severe fire seasons, particularly when peatlands on Sumatra and Kalimantan burn. Authorities say fires are often started illegally to clear land for plantations or agriculture, periodically blanketing parts of Southeast Asia in hazardous smoke.

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Associated Press writers Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

But why the monikers each year? Or at all?

Humans have given names to the world around them for almost as long as language itself has existed, but formal naming practices for storms and other events of national and international importance are a relatively new phenomenon. Names of military operations (“Operation Epic Fury”), hurricanes (Hugo, Andrew, Katrina, etc.), diseases (COVID-19) and even companies need to serve purposes other than just differentiation. They need to tell stories.

“Look around in your home. Who or what has a name? Your family members, your pets. You may even have named certain objects of significance,” says Shannon Murphy, CEO of Nameistry, a firm that helps companies and entrepreneurs develop their brand identities. “If it’s got a name, it has meaning in some way, and it’s going to come up in conversation or other types of communication.”

The World Meteorological Organization, which manages the naming of tropical storms worldwide, says assigning a moniker is “proven to be the fastest way to communicate warnings and raise public awareness and preparedness,” as well as limit confusion when more than one cyclone is moving through. They can also help with research and record-keeping.

Tropical storms the world over are named on a set of pre-agreed alphabetical lists decided by five tropical cyclone regional bodies. Some of these are cyclical, returning to the same lists every few years, starting at "A" with the first storm of the given year; others start a new list every year. Those covering the Atlantic region skip names beginning with Q, U, X, Y and Z because examples are difficult to find.

Until 1979, the United States used only female names, but now it alternates. For example, Amanda’s successor in the Eastern North Pacific storm region is Boris, and residents of the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico and the North Atlantic region have already seen Arthur and Bertha.

Military operation names have evolved (thanks to Churchill)

While storm names are designed to be memorable and simple, they are not necessarily trying to elicit feelings. Neither were military operation names, which functioned to maintain secrecy and to differentiate one from another until British Prime Minister Winston Churchill changed the nomenclature to suit the broader aims of the allies in World War II.

“In the Second World War, names such as Overlord, Torch or Husky were planning code-names,” says Ruben Stewart, senior fellow for land warfare at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. “Churchill’s intervention in the naming of Operation Overlord,” Stewart said, referring to the Allied push that began with D-Day, “reflected a broader wartime realization that operation names mattered.”

In a 1943 memo to his wartime chief of staff discussing code words to be used during World War II, Churchill argued operation names should not imply a “boastful and overconfident sentiment” or be “frivolous.”

The prime minister added that effort should be made to identify names that “do not suggest the character of the operation or disparage it in any way and do not enable some widow or mother to say that her son was killed in an operation called ‘Bunnyhug’ or ‘Ballyhoo.’”

Subsequent conflicts morphed naming practices, with the U.S. military choosing two-word operation names and the United Kingdom sticking with one. Today, British military code names are automatically generated, but U.S. military operations remain evocative. This means joint operations can end up with different names: The military response to the 1991 Gulf War was famously dubbed “Operation Desert Storm” by the U.S. military, while the British opted for “Operation Granby."

Stewart says the post-Korea/Vietnam and post-Panama periods mattered for setting the tone in U.S. military monikers, with Operation Killer during the Korean War in 1951 causing “obvious public-affairs problems,” while the U.S. invasion of Panama being “Operation Just Cause” showed how an operation name could be "deliberately framed for legitimacy,” he said.

Recent years have brought more colorful monikers

When the U.S. war with Iran began in February, it was dubbed Operation Epic Fury, a name President Donald Trump said he selected from a list of 20. Some have criticized the rise of more bombastic names, including immigration raids titled Catahoula Crunch in Louisiana and Operation Dirtbag in Florida — and the naming of detention facilities like Florida's “Alligator Alcatraz.”

“A name can signal purpose, reassure domestic audiences, sustain coalition legitimacy, deter adversaries and give service personnel a shorthand identity for what they are doing,” Stewart says. “The best names are clear, sober, memorable, culturally safe and politically defensible.”

Getting a name's feel or connotation wrong can have huge consequences, despite it being only a sliver of an operation. The U.S. war on terror after 9/11 was originally Operation Infinite Justice, but it was changed to Operation Enduring Freedom after concerns that U.S. allies in the Middle East would be offended. Muslims believe only God can deliver the concept of infinite justice.

Not all names are designed to last. Twice in the last 25 years, the Atlantic weather region exhausted all the names on its annual list and had to resort to using the Greek alphabet to name storms. Now, Berg says, a supplementary list of names sits at the ready.

In the case of a particularly devastating storm, either by death toll or damage, names can be retired and replaced with new ones. Consideration is given to clarity.

“There have been names that are hard to pronounce, and I think people try to refrain from using those because we want them to roll off the tongue pretty easily,” said Robbie Berg, a warning coordination meteorologist with the National Hurricane Center.

The practice of naming major events is continually evolving

Infamous storms with retired names include Sandy, which struck Jamaica, Cuba and the east coast of the United States in 2012, killing 182 people; and Katrina, which struck the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005, killing nearly 1,400. Both caused widespread property devastation. The names won't surface again; they were replaced by Katia and Sara.

Practices also change over time. Historically, diseases and medical conditions were often named after the people who identified them or places they were identified — think of Alzheimer's disease or Ebola — but the World Health Organization now advises against this practice.

“There is a deliberate move away from terms like ‘swine flu’ or ‘Spanish flu,’ which underscores how powerful a name and its associations can be,” Murphy said. “Once it sticks, it’s hard to unstick it.”

There is scant research into the exact impacts of naming. Andrew Charlton-Perez, a meteorologist and head of the School of Mathematical, Physical & Computational Sciences at the University of Reading, called for more studies in the field as the climate brings more frequent and extreme weather events.

“As our climate becomes more extreme,” he said, “there is always the need to think about how to better communicate to avoid harm.”

One possible alternative: crowdsourcing. In Britain and Ireland, people can submit ideas for storm names and try their hand. They might get lucky — depending on which way the wind blows.

Geis’ remains were found by a team made up of local volunteers, according to Irfan Arshad Khan, president of the Alpine Club of Pakistan. The expedition was Geis’ first attempt to climb an 8,000-meter (26,247-foot) peak in Pakistan.

Geis, 39, lived in San Antonio, Texas. She announced on social media earlier this year that she was closing her Pilates studio to take “a giant leap of faith into the unknown to see where life goes. I have a sneaking suspicion there will be lots of helmets, harnesses, and crampons involved.”

Her family remembered her in a statement earlier this month as “a bright light who was loved deeply by her family and friends.”

The recovery ended a search that began on July 31 after the expedition, led by renowned climber Nirmal Purja, was swept away by an avalanche on Broad Peak.

Purja, a Nepal-born former British Army soldier widely known as Nims Dai, climbed the world’s 14 highest peaks in a record 189 days in 2019, an achievement featured in the Netflix documentary “14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible.” His record was broken in 2023.

Accidents are common on climbing expeditions in northern Pakistan because of avalanches, falling ice and rock, high altitude and rapidly changing weather.

“The Disappearers,” Marlon James

Marlon James’ fantasy series “Dark Star” was a showcase for his extraordinary and boundless imagination. In “The Disappearers,” he returns to his native Jamaica and to the murderous reality of his Booker Prize-winning “A Brief History of Seven Killings.” The new novel, longlisted for the Booker, is framed around the horrifying beating in 1988 of eight gay men who had been rehearsing for a play. James weaves together humor, popular culture, compassion and some very hard experience. “I refuse to believe there is any lesson to be learned from suffering an atrocity,” James writes, “other than always be on guard for the ways people turn on you.” (Sept. 1)

“American Scoundrel,” Kai Bird and Susan Goldmark

Kai Bird is best known as the co-author with Martin J. Sherwin of “American Prometheus,” the biography of nuclear scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer that became the basis for Christopher Nolan’s Oscar winner “Oppenheimer.” In “American Scoundrel,” he and Susan Goldmark (his wife) trace the influence of the late political operator Roy Cohn, from his early years as the top aide to Sen. Joseph McCarthy to his mentorship of a young Donald Trump. “American Scoundrel” draws upon government documents, archival material and dozens of interviews, including, to the authors’ surprise, Trump, who “answered our cold calls on his personal cell on several occasions,” Bird writes in the acknowledgments section. Trump was “gracious, if not exactly forthcoming about his memories” and declined to meet in person, because, he told them, “I’m the president. I’m very busy. I have China calling. I have Russia calling. I cannot do it.” (Sept. 1)

“Switzy,” Emma Cline

Emma Cline has well established her mastery of inhabiting the alienated mind, of dramatizing youthful transience, aspiration and deception, most famously in her celebrated debut, “The Girls.” In “Switzy,” longlisted for the Booker Prize, Cline gives us a retired businessman with failing mental capacity, en route to an assisted dying facility in Zurich. Cline breaks up the story into brief, affectless passages as a once-“Valuable Person” reckons with his memories and concludes that “He had always stayed on the surface. His whole life.” (Sept. 8)

“Music Against the Night,” Yiyun Li

“Music Against the Night” is Yiyun Li's sixth novel, and first book since last year's Pulitzer Prize-winning “Things in Nature Merely Grow,” her unsparing memoir about the suicides of her two sons. Li this time appears to have written a very different narrative — about a late 18th-century piano prodigy whose fame barely outlasted his lifetime and the orphaned wanderer-musician who makes the ill-fated decision to marry him. The novel is a story of music, but also a meditation on “the night,” death — parents, friends, children, everybody. “It is despair that one must not submit to,” Li writes late in the book, adding a dark, Shakespearean warning: “A child's death can never feel neutral to a parent; a child's death is a negation of time, which no longer has now and then, now and again, now and later, only now and now and now and now and now.” (Oct. 13)

“Promise Me, America,” former President Joe Biden

Memoirs are often presidents’ best chance to define their legacy, although readers and critics may have different priorities, whether Richard Nixon and Watergate or Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. Joe Biden will understandably want to focus on his defeat of Donald Trump in 2020, the passage of landmark legislation on green energy and the appointment of the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, Ketanji Brown Jackson, among other achievements. But the public will likely be seeking answers to more unwanted questions, notably the state of Biden’s health while he was in the White House, the backstory to his disastrous debate against Trump and his decision soon after to call off his reelection campaign. (Nov. 17)

Former President Joe Biden’s “Promise Me, America” stands out not just as a White House memoir — presidential memoirs are events unto themselves — but as a rare high-profile political book over the next few months. Nonfiction sales have slumped in recent years and political books haven’t approached the peaks of President Donald Trump's first term.

“The energy in political books seems to be subdued. I think folks are just ranted out,” says Kristen McLean, an analyst and vice president for client insights at Circana, which tracks retail book sales.

“I think the (news) cycle is moving a bit too quickly for a lot of the very specific political books to catch on,” says Shannon DeVito, Barnes & Noble's senior director of books.

Michael Lewis' “Blockers,” a probe into Trump's second term through the eyes of government workers, may be the only new release to rival the impact of Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan's summer bestseller, “Regime Change.” This fall’s notable political offerings otherwise revisit the Biden years, from “Promise Me, America,” to former Middle East envoy Brett McGurk’s “Brink: Inside the Race to Free the Oct. 7 Hostages” to Akbar Shahid Ahmed’s study of Biden’s Gaza war policies, “Crossing the Red Line.”

Even Bob Woodward, who for decades released timely exposés of sitting presidents, is passing on current politics. In “Secrets: A Reporter’s Memoir,” he reflects on presidents and White House sources dating back to the Nixon administration and the Watergate scandal that made him famous..

“Because he's going more into his own life, I expect he'll have a different and broader audience than for his other books,” DeVito says.

A feast of fiction

Novelists Barbara Kingsolver and Hernan Diaz, co-winners three years ago of the Pulitzer Prize, will share honors again as two of the featured authors in a busy season. Kingsolver's “Partita,” about a onetime musical prodigy drawn again to her past, is the first since “Demon Copperhead,” her Pulitzer-winning retelling of Charles Dickens' “David Copperfield.” Meanwhile, Diaz has followed his Pulitzer-winning “Trust” with the dystopian, Dickensian “Ply,” about a young thief in a chaotic future society.

Diaz says he met Kingsolver at the Pulitzer ceremony, where the two drank bourbon and bonded over literature and other common interests.

“I don't think literature is a race or a tennis tournament,” Diaz says. “I think the more good books that are out there, the richer the conversation becomes and the more readers are engaged.”

Fiction sales have been solid in 2026 and will likely remain high if only because the two most prominent romantasy authors, Rebecca Yarros and Sarah J. Maas, have new books coming. Maas is releasing “A Court of Splintered Harmony,” the sixth volume of “A Court of Thorns and Roses,” with the seventh installment scheduled for early next year. Yarros' “Threshing Day” compiles 13 stories featuring characters from her Empyrean series, and her stand-alone “Peculiar Stars” finds protagonist Callista Moran stranded on an island after a sailing accident and discovering unexpected sides to herself.

The new fiction list also features Nobel laureate Jon Fosse's latest, “Vaim Hotel,” and three contenders for the Booker Prize — Marlon James' “The Disappearers,” Emma Cline's “Switzy” and Rebecca Perry's “May We Feed the King.” The book most primed for gossip is Rachel Cusk's “Life of M,” a meta-novel about a movie star who may or may not be based on Natalie Portman. The season's longest-awaited novel is likely Chad Harbach's “The Brightness”: The parallel and intertwining lives of two close friends in their 20s is his first novel since his acclaimed 2011 debut, “The Art of Fielding.”

Min Jin Lee's “American Hagwon” is her first novel since 2017 and her celebrated “Pachinko.” Emily St. John Mandel's “Exit Party” is a story of futuristic breakdown from the author of the futuristic classic “Station Eleven.” Yiyun Li, Edwidge Danticat, Kate Atkinson, Deesha Philyaw, Diane Williams, Laleh Khadivi, R.F. Kuang and Norah Labiner also have fiction coming out.

Fans of Stephen King (and the late Peter Straub) can look forward to “Other Worlds Than These,” the final “Talisman” novel. Alice Hoffman launches a new series with “The Witches of Cambridge” and Brandon Sanderson has begun “Blightfall,” written with Janci Patterson. “The French Illusion” is John Grisham's latest thriller. S.A. Cosby's “Truth to Power” is a Marvel Crime novel featuring superhero/sleuth Luke Cage.

Celebrities share their stories

A trio of Oscar-winning superstars will tell their stories this fall: Sylvester Stallone's “The Steps,” its title a reference to the actor's iconic upward run in “Rocky”; Michael Douglas' “One Helluva Ride,” which the actor and producer has called a corrective to the blurry legends of fame; and Dustin Hoffman's “Look at Me,” promoted by publisher Simon Six as “an intimate memoir about art, ambition, family, friendship, love, aging, and the mysteries of a creative life.”

Gloria Steinem looks back on her early years in “An Unexpected Life” and former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick reflects on his activism in “The Perilous Fight.” Chuck Lorre's “Sitcom” is a memoir from the creator behind “Two and a Half Men” and “The Big Bang Theory.” Eric Dane’s “My Book of Days” comes out just months after the “Grey’s Anatomy” star died from ALS.

Poetry for all times

Ancient poetry seems new again thanks to Christopher Nolan's adaptation of “The Odyssey,” which has placed editions by Emily Wilson and the late Robert Fagles high on bestseller lists. Wilson has a new book out this fall, “Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea,” essays that cover everything from Greek tragedy to “slut-shaming” Helen of Troy to the “sly laughter” of Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion's “WAP.”

In “Cloud Runner,” former U.S. poet laureate Joy Harjo tries to express what she acknowledges may be inexpressible, the death three years ago of her daughter, Rainy Ortiz: “I have lost my girl./Some things do not belong in words,” Harjo writes. Jennifer Franklin channels the mind of James Joyce’s gifted, ill-fated daughter Lucia in the collection “A Fire in Her Brain.”

New work is also expected from Layli Long Soldier, Tina Chang, Patricia Lockwood, Dalia Taha, Avis Blackbird and Hieu Minh Nguyen. The anthology “Other Legacies” features tributes from Rae Armantrout, Edward Hirsch and other prizewinners to such lesser-known poets as Rachel Loden, Julia de Burgos and Stephen Jonas.

Making history

Another writer enriched by a Nolan movie — Kai Bird, co-author of “American Prometheus,” the biography adapted into “Oppenheimer” — has co-written “American Scoundrel,” the story of lawyer/political fixer/Trump mentor Roy Cohn. In “The Rush,” award winner Nathaniel Philbrick revisits the 19th century quest for gold. The acclaimed science writer James Gleick examines the evolution of communication in “The Telephone: A New History.”

Two books, Timothy W. Ryback's “53 Days” and Victor Sebestyen’s “Weimar Germany,” examine the fall of democracy in 1930s Germany, while other releases warning of contemporary threats include Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor’s “End Times Fascism” and Pulitzer winner Jill Lepore's “The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State.”

Public radio host Celeste Headlee's “Freedom’s Daughters” is one of many works this fall that center on race and racism. Grandmaster Flash has collaborated with Robert “Scoop” Jackson on a history of rap and hip-hop, “Birth of a Culture,” and Stephanie Phillips' music history “We Were Here” highlights artists from Sister Rosetta Tharpe to Living Colour.

Pulitzer winner Alan Taylor’s “Tower Hill” offers a fresh look at the 1831 rebellion led by the enslaved Nat Turner. In “Renaissance Men,” Harriet A. Washington honors three groundbreaking and overlooked Black physicians in a narrative spanning the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century, and resonating today.

The two-time Olympic champion released “Gold” with World Athletics on Friday as the anthem of the upcoming meet that boasts a total prize fund of $10 million.

Ultimate Championship will be staged in Budapest from Sept. 11-13 showcasing Olympic, world and Diamond League champions over three evening sessions. Gold medalists in individual events will win $150,000.

The 26-year-old Duplantis has dabbled in music for several years and released his first single, “Bop,” in 2025.

Duplantis, the world-record holder, says he dreams of winning a Grammy.

“Gold” was written by Duplantis with Carl Silvergran and Oscar Chase, and was produced by Chase, the World Athletics announcement said.

“I wrote the song around representing something that’s a lot bigger than yourself,” Duplantis said in the announcement. “I think that’s what we all do when we’re on the track. We represent our family, our team, our coaches, and I love that concept. Music and sports are the two things that bring people together in the best way, and ‘Gold’ is an expression of that.”

The accompanying music video was filmed in the Hungarian capital and includes archival footage of Duplantis as a young athlete.

The Louisiana-born Duplantis told the Olympics channel last year he uses his music “as a way of therapy. I really love to have something else to be able to do, and to kind of take myself away from sports a little bit.”

At the Ultimate Championship, his new song “will be woven into the broadcast and live-event experience, connecting fans in-stadium with audiences around the world,” World Athletics said.

Duplantis is scheduled to perform “Gold” live in-stadium to close out the event.

“The Ultimate is purposefully designed to showcase the talents and passions of our sport’s biggest stars, on and off the track,” World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said. “Mondo is one of our most recognizable and accomplished athletes, and we could not be more excited that he is the one who created the Ultimate Anthem."

The championship will be a biennial event.

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See full AP coverage of European sports here

Khan isn't being held under a government order, but as a “convicted prisoner” serving sentences imposed by courts following judicial proceedings, the Ministry of Information said in a written response to The Associated Press.

The government’s response came hours after Khan’s family and opposition party accused authorities of violating a Supreme Court order by taking him to a government hospital for a medical examination instead of a private hospital designated by the court.

Khan’s sister, Uzma Khan, told a news conference that she was at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, a government-run hospital in Islamabad, when her brother was brought there overnight.

Khan’s sister said that during a meeting with her, Khan complained that he had been kept in solitary confinement, which she said amounted to mental torture for him. Suhail Afridi, a senior leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, or PTI, also accused the government of violating the order by taking Khan to the public hospital.

Khan’s personal physician, Dr. Faisal Sultan, said that he had been escorted to Shifa International Hospital, where he waited for Khan until early Friday. Sultan said he was eventually told that Khan had been returned to Adiala prison in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said earlier Friday that Khan had been returned to prison after doctors examined him and found him medically fit.

The ministry also rejected allegations that Khan was being held in solitary confinement or denied meaningful contact with his family. It said that Khan had received more than 900 visits from family members, lawyers, doctors, political representatives and other approved visitors since his imprisonment in 2023. It said that he also has been allowed weekly meetings with his wife, and telephone, landline and WhatsApp contact with relatives in Pakistan and abroad.

According to the ministry, Khan’s most recent recorded telephone conversation with one of his sons was on March 21. It said that Khan’s sisters had met him as recently as Aug. 18 and 19.

The government said Khan has access to reading material and television, and is allowed home-cooked food and exercise equipment and “maintains a healthy diet.” It said, however, that access to Khan couldn't be used to send political messages from prison.

The ministry rejected allegations of medical neglect, saying Khan had undergone about 30 examinations by specialists and medical boards from institutions including PIMS, Shifa International Hospital, Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital, in addition to regular examinations by the prison doctor.

The ministry said Uzma Khan had herself acknowledged at Friday’s news conference that her brother was “100% fit,” with blood pressure of 120/80 and his eye condition almost completely healed.

It also disputed descriptions of Khan’s detention conditions, saying he was being held in a seven-cell compound with sleeping, sanitation and exercise facilities, and was provided separately prepared meals that included meat, chicken, fruit, milk, nuts, juices and bottled water.

The government insists that authorities took Khan to the public hospital because of security concerns involving supporters of Khan’s PTI party who had gathered outside Shifa International Hospital or were heading there. He said that Khan was found to be in good health.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered that Khan be examined at Shifa International Hospital by a medical board that included specialists and one of his personal physicians.

Concerns about Khan’s health intensified in late January, after his family said that he had lost about 85% of the vision in his right eye, which the government disputed. Authorities later said that his condition was improving.

The former cricket star turned politician was ousted in a parliamentary no-confidence vote in April 2022 and has been imprisoned since 2023 after being convicted in multiple cases.

Russell took the fight to his series-leading Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli as he qualified on pole position for the sprint race at the Dutch Grand Prix. F1 has returned from its midseason break, two weeks after Russell announced he and his partner Carmen Montero Mundt were engaged.

After setting the fastest time Friday, Russell said over the team radio, “Nice one! Must be a bit lighter after that engagement ring.”

Russell previously revealed that “a lot of thought” went into his proposal, including designing the ring itself. “I suddenly got really nervous when I was on one knee,” he added.

Russell snatched top spot by 0.041 of a second from McLaren's Lando Norris, winner of the last race in Hungary, with Charles Leclerc third for Ferrari, 0.014 further back.

Antonelli was fifth and revealed he'd been struggling with damage from a bumpy ride across a gravel trap in the first part of the session. The damage was “a couple of holes in the floor.” His closest championship challenger Lewis Hamilton could manage only seventh for Ferrari.

Pole is a long-awaited boost for Russell

Pole is especially welcome for Russell, who hasn't won since the Austrian Grand Prix in June and was one of the drivers hardest hit by software quirks in how his Mercedes uses its electrical energy.

“It was a tough end to the first half of the year and I'm really happy to come back,” said Russell, who’s 59 points off his 19-year-old teammate Antonelli after a near-stall ruined his race in Hungary last month. “The lap felt really good. It all came together nicely.”

After his joke about shedding the weight of the engagement ring, Russell said he'd also worked to lose the mental baggage of overthinking.

“Confidence level wasn’t exactly at my highest, but just trying to remember that feeling of what I needed from myself and the car and just go in and almost treat it like the first race of the season again and not overthink things,” he said. “That seems to work well for me. It’s very difficult to actually put those words into action.”

Earlier Friday, Antonelli went fastest in the single practice session on a drying, constantly changing track after rain.

The 2026 cars and their formidable electrical power have yet to be tried in serious rain as part of a race weekend. That briefly seemed like it would happen in practice as teams started on intermediate tires, but the track soon dried out. Sprint qualifying was dry.

Dutch GP is unique. Here's why it's leaving

Max Verstappen has committed to Red Bull on a new contract through 2030 but there's no sign of his Dutch home race staying beyond this year.

The 80s rock anthem “The Final Countdown” rang around the venue Thursday as organizers geared up for the sixth and final Dutch GP since returning to the F1 calendar in 2021.

The race is a privately run operation in a calendar packed with races that boast government backing. Citing “risks and responsibilities,” organizers said in 2024 they'd rather “go out on a high" with two more races and no more.

Something else makes the Dutch GP stand out, too. Almost all fans attending are barred from driving to the track because the seaside resort town puts strict rules on traffic. Instead, they must take the train from Amsterdam or — in a uniquely Dutch take on F1 — join the tens of thousands riding bikes to Zandvoort.

Lawson and Tsunoda need to learn fast

Liam Lawson learned only on Monday he was being promoted to the main Red Bull team after Isack Hadjar injured his wrist. Lawson has tried the unfamiliar car only on the simulator so far, in a hastily arranged session Wednesday.

Lawson's promotion means Yuki Tsunoda is back on the grid with Racing Bulls. He hasn't raced under the new-for-2026 regulations at all. Lawson qualified 11th and Tsunoda 12th.

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See AP’s full auto racing coverage here

“We have virtually given up on many things,” said Ahmad Karimi, 52, a taxi driver and father of two who has been working 15-hour days to make ends meet. “We’re cutting out fruit, we’re cutting out protein, we’ve given up leisure, we even work on weekends."

Nearly six months into the war with the United States and Israel, the Iranian economy is taking a beating under the force of sanctions and a naval blockade that is making it extremely difficult for the country to export oil, its most valuable product.

Whether this intensifying economic pressure will translate anytime soon into military or political concessions from Iran remains to be seen — but some experts are skeptical. Since the war began, Iran has been attacking oil-rich neighbors and U.S. bases in the region, and disrupting shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, its biggest strategic advantage.

Iran is trying to use this retaliatory pressure — which is driving up energy prices globally — to bring the war to an end on the best terms possible. It is pressing for sanctions relief, and seeking enough control over the strait to demand payment from ships passing through to deliver energy and other goods.

The Trump administration — which is stuck fighting over a waterway in a war that was launched to curb Iran's nuclear program — is now promising to deliver even tougher sanctions to try to squeeze the Islamic Republic into submission. But experts say U.S. President Donald Trump may be underestimating how long Iran can hold out.

Iran has been subject to Western sanctions for years and has become deft at partially circumventing them. It has expanded domestic production, used informal cross-border trade networks, bought restricted goods through third countries, and used a shadow fleet to transport its oil.

“Iran’s resistance capacity not only avoids collapse, it also prevents the economic pain from translating into the political pressure and changes that the U.S. expects,” said Hadi Kahalzadeh, an expert on Iran’s economy at Brandeis University.

Iran's economic strains carry an ‘emotional toll’

Tehran’s sprawling Grand Bazaar is regularly packed with shoppers hoping to find more affordable staples than at the country’s grocery stores, where rice is 60% more expensive and beef is 150% more expensive than before the war.

A mother of two from northern Iran posted a photo on X this week after purchasing milk, eggs, toilet paper and a few other items, but no meat. She complained that it cost 89 million rials (about $65).

“Buying basic necessities has become our main priority, and our shopping basket has gotten smaller and more limited,” the 41-year-old told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

“The emotional toll and the pressure we’re under are another story," she said. "Every time we have to say no to our children, every time we have to go back and forth over a decision, whether it’s a class you’d love your children to take or something they really want you to buy for them, it’s genuinely exhausting.”

By the end of the year, inflation in Iran is expected to rise nearly 70%, according to the International Monetary Fund, and the country's economy — devastated by a decade of sanctions before the war — is forecast to shrink by more than 5%.

While gasoline has remained cheap thanks to government subsidies, even that might not last forever as supplies get tighter. A presidential aide told Iranian state television last week that the country is now using more gasoline each day than it produces and may need to raise prices — something that in the past has led to widespread protests.

Iranians turn some anger toward countries behind sanctions

Iran's theocratic leaders were already facing economic discontent before the U.S. and Israel started the war on Feb. 28. Protests had spread across the country at the beginning of the year before they were violently put down, with thousands killed and tens of thousands believed to have been arrested.

Many Iranians have now turned at least some of their economic frustrations toward the countries behind the sanctions and the attacks that have destroyed factories and critical infrastructure and killed scores of civilians, said Hassan Golmoradi, a Tehran-based economist.

“Despite the hardships and difficulties, they have shown considerable patience in putting up with the resulting economic pressures,” Golmoradi said.

Iran’s leaders have said it is a treasonous offense — punishable by death — to take part in anti-government protests.

“They do suffer, but they do not think that by joining violent protests they can achieve something for themselves and their families,” said Mohammad Farzanegan, a professor of Middle Eastern economics at the University of Marburg in Germany.

Trump is threatening tougher sanctions

On Wednesday, Trump vowed on social media to unleash against Iran the “most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country.” He also threatened secondary sanctions on nations and companies that continue to do business with Iran.

The United Arab Emirates, which for years had enabled Iran to circumvent sanctions and receive goods from other countries, announced this week it was suspending all trade with Tehran. Trump had called the leader of the UAE, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the day before the announcement.

With the economic struggles, the elected government of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has said it favors a negotiated end to the war. “What concerns us is people’s livelihoods and their economic situation, and we are doing everything we can to deal with it,” he told reporters last week.

But the most powerful force in Iran remains the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which has only become stronger after withstanding U.S. and Israeli airstrikes that killed Iran’s top leaders during the war's opening salvos. The Guard is pressing for greater concessions from the U.S., including Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz and financial compensation for the war.

With negotiations to end the war stalled, Iran’s hard-liners believe their country can endure the conflict’s economic pressures longer than their adversaries.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, this month appointed a former Revolutionary Guard commander to head Iran’s powerful Supreme National Security Council, a sign that he favors the hard-line approach.

A taxi driver says something has to give

Official government statistics put Iran’s unemployment rate at 9.1%, though state-affiliated media outlets have said the real figure is most likely many times higher. A Labor Ministry official said last week that by late May, just three months into the war, more than 1 million jobs had been lost.

In a sign that Iran's leaders are at least somewhat concerned about public opinion, the government has refrained from enforcing mandatory hijab regulations as harshly as it had been — a social freedom that has long been sought by many.

But these days many Iranians are focused on how their lifestyles are restricted economically.

Karimi, the taxi driver, said Iran’s leaders will need to do something soon to alleviate the financial pressures he and others are feeling.

“The people won’t be able to continue living like this,” he said. “We’re simply breathing, surviving, and trying to make it from one day to the next.”

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Rising reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.