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If the court accepts the plea, Clenney’s trial will not happen, bringing an end to the case.

Clenney’s legal team says she is ready to accept a plea deal from the State Attorney’s Office. It is not yet known how much prison time she will agree to.

Clenney, 30, has been jailed in Miami since her 2022 arrest on a second-degree murder charge. She is accused of killing her on-and-off boyfriend inside their luxury Edgewater apartment four years ago.

Miami police body camera footage showed Clenney covered in blood. Prosecutors say she stabbed Christian during a fight.

Investigators broke the news of Obumseli’s death to Clenney during a police interview.

On the outside, the couple appeared to be in love and living a lavish lifestyle. But since Obumseli’s death, videos have shown a turbulent side to their relationship.

Clenney was seen hitting Obumseli in an elevator. On a trip to Aspen, she was also seen repeatedly slapping him.

That fight happened two months before Obumseli was stabbed. Clenney’s lawyers say the April 2022 stabbing was in self-defense.

The videos, along with a mountain of digital evidence, were part of the evidence prosecutors planned to use to prove their case at trial.

The State Attorney’s Office says Clenney was abusive and violent.

The Obumseli family plans to attend Monday’s hearing and read victim impact statements before the court decides whether to accept the plea.

“It’s never a slam dunk case,” defense attorney Jack Palmeri said. “You never know what 12 jurors are going to do in a case -- nothing is ever a gimme when it comes to trial, so everyone has exposure.”

Palmeri said the Obumseli family would have needed to sign on off on the deal.

“I think, theoretically, this is a done deal, but yes, technically speaking in the literal sense, this is not done until on the record in court the judge signs off on it,” Palmeri said.

A lawyer for the Obumseli family says they have been involved in conversations surrounding the plea.

Clenney’s lawyers plan to answer questions from the media following the hearing.

Si el tribunal acepta el acuerdo, el juicio de Clenney no se llevará a cabo, poniendo fin al caso.

El equipo legal de Clenney dice que ella está lista para aceptar un acuerdo de culpabilidad de la Fiscalía Estatal. Aún no se sabe cuánto tiempo de prisión aceptará cumplir.

Clenney, de 30 años, permanece encarcelada en Miami desde su arresto en 2022 por un cargo de asesinato en segundo grado. Está acusada de matar a su novio, con quien mantenía una relación intermitente, dentro del lujoso apartamento que compartían en Edgewater hace cuatro años.

Las imágenes de la cámara corporal de la policía de Miami mostraron a Clenney cubierta de sangre. Los fiscales dicen que apuñaló a Christian durante una pelea.

Los investigadores le informaron a Clenney sobre la muerte de Obumseli durante una entrevista con la policía.

Ante los demás, la pareja parecía estar enamorada y llevar un estilo de vida lujoso. Pero desde la muerte de Obumseli, videos han mostrado un lado turbulento de su relación.

Clenney fue vista golpeando a Obumseli en un ascensor. Durante un viaje a Aspen, también fue vista abofeteándolo repetidamente.

Esa pelea ocurrió dos meses antes de que Obumseli fuera apuñalado. Los abogados de Clenney dicen que el apuñalamiento de abril de 2022 fue en defensa propia.

Los videos, junto con una gran cantidad de evidencia digital, formaban parte de las pruebas que los fiscales planeaban utilizar para demostrar su caso en el juicio.

La Fiscalía Estatal dice que Clenney era abusiva y violenta.

La familia Obumseli planea asistir a la audiencia del lunes y leer declaraciones sobre el impacto en las víctimas antes de que el tribunal decida si acepta el acuerdo.

“Nunca es un caso con victoria asegurada”, dijo el abogado defensor Jack Palmeri. “Nunca se sabe qué van a hacer 12 miembros del jurado en un caso, nada está garantizado cuando se trata de un juicio, por lo que todos tienen algo que arriesgar”.

Palmeri dijo que la familia Obumseli habría tenido que aprobar el acuerdo.

“Creo que, en teoría, este es un acuerdo cerrado, pero sí, técnicamente hablando, en el sentido literal, esto no estará cerrado hasta que el juez lo apruebe oficialmente en el tribunal”, dijo Palmeri.

Un abogado de la familia Obumseli dice que han participado en las conversaciones relacionadas con el acuerdo.

Los abogados de Clenney planean responder preguntas de los medios de comunicación después de la audiencia.

A woman contacted police to report that Yoniel Izquierdo had been living with the dog in the van for about two months, according to police.

Police officers responded shortly before 1:25 p.m. on Friday to the area of West Ninth Lane and 40th Place, according to a police report.

“I observed a dog confined inside the van and unable to exit on its own. The vehicle was parked in direct sunlight with no shade. The vehicle was not running,” a Hialeah police officer wrote, according to the report.

Miami-Dade County Animal Services personnel responded and found that the temperature inside the van was about 107 degrees, according to the report.

“The air conditioning was not operating. The vehicle only has two windows that were slightly cracked open ... The dog was observed panting and displaying signs of distress,” an officer wrote, according to the report.

MDCAA personnel poured water on the dog, according to police.

Izquierdo told police officers that “he had been living in the van with the dog for approximately one month and acknowledged that he leaves the dog confined inside the van when he goes to work,” an officer wrote, according to the police arrest report.

Miami-Dade corrections booked Izquierdo shortly after 4:10 p.m. on Friday, and he was at the Metrowest Detention Center on Monday morning, according to inmate records.

Izquierdo faced a charge of animal cruelty with intent to injure or kill, a third-degree felony. His bond was $5,000.

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The incident happened along South Dixie Highway near Rodman Street and involved what appeared to be a cargo train.

The incident temporarily blocked all railroad crossings into Hallandale Beach at one point.

Crime scene investigators were seen searching the area and taking photographs as authorities worked to determine the circumstances surrounding the death.

The scene has since been cleared and the railroad crossings have reopened.

Authorities have not released the identity of the person who died or provided additional details about what led up to the incident.

The investigation is ongoing.

El incidente ocurrió en South Dixie Highway, cerca de Rodman Street, e involucró lo que parecía ser un tren de carga.

En un momento dado, el incidente bloqueó temporalmente todos los cruces ferroviarios hacia Hallandale Beach.

Investigadores de la escena del crimen fueron vistos inspeccionando el área y tomando fotografías mientras las autoridades trabajaban para determinar las circunstancias de la muerte.

La escena ya fue despejada y los cruces ferroviarios fueron reabiertos.

Las autoridades no han revelado la identidad de la persona que murió ni proporcionado detalles adicionales sobre lo que ocurrió antes del incidente.

La investigación continúa.

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Online jail records show Erwin Rommel Recinos, now 30, was extradited to Miami-Dade County and booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on July 23.

Recinos is charged with three counts of DUI manslaughter, three counts of vehicular homicide/reckless manner, DUI causing serious bodily injury and reckless driving causing serious bodily injury.

Miami police officers arrested Recinos on March 24, 2022, months after the fatal crash occurred at about 3 a.m. on Feb. 13, 2022.

According to police, the crash occurred near a Valero gas station along West Flagler Street, near Southwest 48th Avenue.

Paola Sabillon, Jason Meza and Giselle Reyes were killed in the crash.

According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Recinos was deported to Honduras on Sept. 6, 2024, after a federal judge signed a final order.

Online jail records show that Recinos once again is being jailed on an immigration hold, but he is not expected to be deported this time until after his trial is finished and his sentence is completed, if he is convicted.

Los registros de la cárcel en línea muestran que Erwin Rommel Recinos, ahora de 30 años, fue extraditado al condado Miami-Dade e ingresó al Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight el 23 de julio.

Recinos enfrenta tres cargos de homicidio involuntario por conducir bajo la influencia, tres cargos de homicidio vehicular/conducción imprudente, conducir bajo la influencia causando lesiones corporales graves y conducción imprudente causando lesiones corporales graves.

Agentes de la policía de Miami arrestaron a Recinos el 24 de marzo de 2022, meses después de que el accidente fatal ocurriera alrededor de las 3 a.m. del 13 de febrero de 2022.

Según la policía, el accidente ocurrió cerca de una gasolinera Valero en West Flagler Street, cerca de Southwest 48th Avenue.

Paola Sabillon, Jason Meza y Giselle Reyes murieron en el accidente.

Según el Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas de Estados Unidos, Recinos fue deportado a Honduras el 6 de septiembre de 2024, después de que un juez federal firmara una orden definitiva.

Los registros de la cárcel en línea muestran que Recinos está nuevamente detenido bajo una orden de retención migratoria, pero no se espera que sea deportado esta vez hasta después de que termine su juicio y cumpla su sentencia, si es declarado culpable.

En la escuela primaria Silver Palms en Pembroke Pines, los estudiantes llegaron luciendo nuevos peinados, zapatos nuevos y mucha emoción por volver a ver a sus amigos después de las vacaciones de verano.

Una estudiante, Olivia, dijo que estaba feliz de que el verano hubiera terminado porque estaba lista para ver a sus amigos. Cuando le preguntaron qué estaba lista para aprender, dio una respuesta sencilla: “¡Simplemente aprender a ser amable con todos!”

Para los padres, la prisa de la mañana también pareció transcurrir sin problemas.

“En realidad, ellos fueron a Silver Palms el año pasado y la pasaron muy bien”, dijo un padre, Michael, después de que le preguntaran cómo fue lograr que sus hijos salieran de casa.

Una vez que se despejaron las filas para dejar a los estudiantes, los maestros y administradores centraron su atención en el año escolar que tienen por delante.

“Hemos estado preparándonos para esto durante todo el verano”, dijo Irina Shearer, directora de la escuela primaria Silver Palms.

Nuevos estudiantes llegan en medio de consolidaciones de escuelas de Broward

El primer día de este año llega con cambios significativos en las Escuelas Públicas del Condado Broward, mientras el distrito continúa abordando la disminución de inscripciones y los miles de asientos vacíos en las aulas.

Bajo el plan “Redefiniendo Nuestras Escuelas” del distrito, Silver Palms está recibiendo a unos 50 estudiantes de la escuela primaria Panther Run, una de seis escuelas cerradas este año a medida que los planteles fueron consolidados o destinados a otros usos.

Shearer dijo que los miembros del personal han trabajado para hacer que los estudiantes que llegan y sus familias se sientan parte de su nueva comunidad escolar.

“Realmente queremos asegurarnos de recibir con los brazos abiertos a las familias que vienen de Panther Run”, dijo Shearer.

Dijo que una maestra estaba creando una pancarta que incorporaba las mascotas de las escuelas, las Panteras de Panther Run y los Delfines de Silver Palms, para simbolizar la unión de las dos comunidades.

Los cambios también se están sintiendo dentro de las aulas.

“Creo que es energía renovada. Tenemos nuevos padres, nuevos niños”, dijo Kristin Kavanaugh, maestra de tercer grado en Silver Palms. “Tengo algunos estudiantes más en mi clase de los que estoy acostumbrada a tener. Tengo unos siete niños que vienen de la otra escuela”.

Los líderes del distrito han dicho que quieren que la transición sea lo más fluida posible para los estudiantes y las familias afectados por las consolidaciones.

Los cambios representan una expansión significativa de los esfuerzos de Broward para abordar los planteles con poco uso. El distrito cerró una escuela el año pasado, mientras que seis planteles fueron consolidados o destinados a otros usos este año.

En Silver Palms, los maestros dicen que su enfoque inmediato tiene menos que ver con los cambios más amplios que están ocurriendo en todo el distrito y más con garantizar que cada niño se sienta bienvenido al comenzar el nuevo año escolar.

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At Silver Palms Elementary School in Pembroke Pines, students arrived sporting fresh hairstyles, new shoes and plenty of excitement about seeing their friends after summer break.

One student, Olivia, said she was happy summer was over because she was ready to see her friends. Asked what she was ready to learn, she had a simple answer: “Just learning to be nice to everyone!”

For parents, the morning rush also appeared to go smoothly.

“They actually went to Silver Palms last year, and they had a really good time,” one parent, Michael, said after being asked about getting his children out the door.

Once the drop-off lines cleared, teachers and administrators turned their attention to the school year ahead.

“We’ve been preparing for this all summer long,” Silver Palms Elementary Principal Irina Shearer said.

New students arrive amid Broward school consolidations

This year’s first day comes with significant changes across Broward County Public Schools as the district continues addressing declining enrollment and thousands of empty classroom seats.

Under the district’s “Redefining Our Schools” plan, Silver Palms is welcoming about 50 students from Panther Run Elementary, one of six schools closed this year as campuses were consolidated or repurposed.

Shearer said staff members have worked to make the incoming students and their families feel like they are part of their new school community.

“We really want to make sure we’re embracing the families that are coming from Panther Run,” Shearer said.

She said one teacher was creating a banner incorporating the schools’ mascots — the Panther Run Panthers and Silver Palms Dolphins — to symbolize the two communities coming together.

The changes are also being felt inside classrooms.

“I think it’s fresh energy. We’ve got new parents, new kids,” said Kristin Kavanaugh, a third-grade teacher at Silver Palms. “I have a few more students in my class than I’m used to having. I have about seven kids coming from the other school.”

District leaders have said they want the transition to be as smooth as possible for students and families affected by the consolidations.

The changes represent a significant expansion of Broward’s efforts to address underused campuses. The district closed one school last year, while six campuses were consolidated or repurposed this year.

At Silver Palms, teachers say their immediate focus is less about the larger changes happening across the district and more about ensuring every child feels welcome as the new school year begins.

Fabiano Caruana, who was born in Miami’s Coconut Grove neighborhood, discovered chess when he was just 5 years old. What began as an after-school activity quickly developed into a professional pursuit that would eventually take him around the world.

“I started after school just playing with other kids,” Caruana said. “There was a coach. He told my parents, ‘Maybe you should pursue it. Seems like he’s good.’ And then we started taking it more seriously, and I represented the U.S. in youth competitions. That was the beginning.”

That beginning ultimately propelled Caruana to the highest levels of competitive chess. Today, he is ranked among the best players in the world and has built a following of nearly 200,000 people on Instagram.

Caruana recently returned to South Florida to represent Team USA in an elite international rapid and blitz chess competition at Faena Miami Beach, featuring some of the world’s top grandmasters.

Chess finds a new generation

While chess has existed for centuries, Caruana says the game has evolved considerably in recent years. Online platforms have made it easier than ever for people to learn and compete, helping introduce the game to millions of new players.

“The great thing about chess is it’s very accessible,” Caruana said. “It doesn’t cost anything to play. You can play online for free.”

Caruana also believes the benefits extend well beyond competition.

“I think it’s one of the really useful things that chess can do for people,” he said, pointing to its potential cognitive benefits and the lessons it can teach children, including “self-control, patience, hard work.”

Despite chess’ growing online popularity, Caruana said players are still working to overcome the perception that the game is slow or outdated.

“I think we’ve had to fight this perception that chess is an old-fashioned game,” he said. “There are a lot of ways chess can be exciting, but the best way to decide is to give it a try.”

Much of that excitement, he said, comes from the tension players experience even when there may not be much visible action to spectators.

“The tension that you feel, you may not see on the outside, but you feel while you’re playing it,” Caruana said.

That pressure is amplified in rapid and blitz competitions, where players have significantly less time to make decisions.

“When you’re playing as fast as possible, nothing goes through your mind except your next move,” he said.

Chasing a world championship

Despite already reaching the upper echelon of the chess world, Caruana still has one major goal left on his list: becoming world champion.

“I would like to fight for the World Championship title,” he said.

Caruana said he expects to have another opportunity to pursue that goal during the 2028 championship cycle.

“I’ll be able to try in the next cycle, which is in 2028,” he said, “and hopefully I’ll make it then.”

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Whether it’s your child’s very first day of kindergarten, their final first day as a senior, or a proud family photo before heading out the door, Local 10 is inviting viewers to submit their pictures for a chance to be featured on-air. All photos will be displayed in a gallery below.

Students across South Florida will return to the classroom on the following dates:

• Broward County Public Schools: Monday, Aug. 10
• Archdiocese of Miami Catholic Schools: Tuesday, Aug. 11
• Monroe County School District: Wednesday, Aug. 12
• Miami-Dade County Public Schools: Thursday, Aug. 13

Photos may be featured in Local 10’s newscasts, on Local10.com and across the station’s social media platforms as South Florida students kick off the new school year.

Local 10 wishes all students, teachers and school staff a safe, successful and exciting school year.

Submit your back-to-school photos below:

Ya sea el primer día de kínder de tu hijo, su último primer día como estudiante de último año o una orgullosa foto familiar antes de salir de casa, Local 10 invita a los televidentes a enviar sus fotos para tener la oportunidad de aparecer al aire. Todas las fotos se mostrarán en una galería a continuación.

Los estudiantes de todo el sur de Florida regresarán a las aulas en las siguientes fechas:

• Escuelas Públicas del Condado Broward: lunes 10 de agosto
• Escuelas Católicas de la Arquidiócesis de Miami: martes 11 de agosto
• Distrito Escolar del Condado Monroe: miércoles 12 de agosto
• Escuelas Públicas del Condado Miami-Dade: jueves 13 de agosto

Las fotos podrían aparecer en los noticieros de Local 10, en Local10.com y en las plataformas de redes sociales de la estación mientras los estudiantes del sur de Florida comienzan el nuevo año escolar.

Local 10 desea a todos los estudiantes, maestros y personal escolar un año escolar seguro, exitoso y emocionante.

Envía tus fotos del regreso a clases a continuación:

Según un comunicado de prensa del Departamento de Policía de Opa-locka, sus agentes fueron llamados para ayudar a la policía de Miami Gardens durante una persecución vehicular activa.

La policía dijo que el sospechoso disparó un arma contra los agentes que lo perseguían mientras huía de Miami Gardens y entraba a Opa-locka.

Agentes de Opa-locka respondieron para ayudar a la policía de Miami Gardens mientras continuaba la persecución.

La persecución finalmente terminó cerca de Northwest 107th Street y Northwest 17th Avenue, donde las autoridades detuvieron al sospechoso, según la policía de Opa-locka.

Se estableció una escena separada cerca de Northwest 22nd Avenue y Northwest 135th Street, donde la policía dijo que un agente de Miami Gardens estuvo involucrado en un accidente durante la persecución.

Personal de emergencia respondió a la escena.

Las autoridades no proporcionaron de inmediato información sobre la condición del agente ni dijeron si alguien más resultó herido en el accidente.

Las autoridades tampoco han revelado la identidad del sospechoso ni detalles adicionales sobre la investigación por delito grave que precedió a la persecución.

La policía de Opa-locka enfatizó que la información divulgada hasta el momento es preliminar y dijo que la investigación permanece activa y en curso.

Se espera que las agencias investigadoras correspondientes divulguen detalles adicionales sobre la investigación subyacente, la persecución, el arresto y el accidente que involucró al agente.

“El Departamento de Policía de la Ciudad de Opa-locka mantiene su compromiso de trabajar en colaboración con nuestros socios de las agencias policiales vecinas para proteger a nuestras comunidades y garantizar la seguridad de los residentes y del personal policial”, declaró el OLPD en el comunicado de prensa.

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According to a news release from the Opa-locka Police Department, its officers were called to assist Miami Gardens police during an active vehicle pursuit.

Police said the suspect fired a gun at pursuing officers while fleeing Miami Gardens and entering Opa-locka.

Opa-locka officers responded to assist Miami Gardens police as the pursuit continued.

The chase eventually ended near Northwest 107th Street and Northwest 17th Avenue, where authorities took the suspect into custody, according to Opa-locka police.

A separate scene was established near Northwest 22nd Avenue and Northwest 135th Street, where police said a Miami Gardens officer was involved in a crash during the pursuit.

Emergency personnel responded to the scene.

Officials did not immediately provide information about the officer’s condition or say whether anyone else was injured in the crash.

Authorities also have not released the suspect’s identity or additional details about the felony investigation that preceded the pursuit.

Opa-locka police emphasized that the information released so far is preliminary and said the investigation remains active and ongoing.

Additional details about the underlying investigation, pursuit, arrest and officer-involved crash are expected to be released by the appropriate investigating agencies.

“The City of Opa-locka Police Department remains committed to working collaboratively with our neighboring law enforcement partners to protect our communities and ensure the safety of residents and law enforcement personnel,” the OLPD stated in the news release.

Grupo Centro, la organización de atención médica propietaria del Sanatorio Centro, un hospital en Rosario, Argentina, anunció que Jorge Messi murió la mañana del sábado.

“Nuestros corazones están con nuestro capitán, Leo, y con toda la familia Messi”, escribió un portavoz de Inter Miami CF en el comunicado del equipo.

La Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol, CONMEBOL, y el Club Atlético Newell”s Old Boys de Rosario también emitieron mensajes de condolencias.

Jorge Messi fue mediocampista y llegó a las categorías juveniles de Newell”s Old Boys. Fue agente de su hijo y estuvo involucrado en los contratos de Leo Messi con el Barça, Paris Saint-Germain e Inter Miami CF.

“Tuve el privilegio de conocer y trabajar con Jorge. Era un hombre de palabra, y mis pensamientos y oraciones están con su familia durante este momento difícil. Miami ha acogido a la familia del Team Messi como propia, y hoy lamentamos su pérdida junto a ellos”, escribió Francis X. Suarez, ex alcalde de Miami, en un comunicado en X.

Durante la Copa Mundial de la FIFA, Lionel Messi dijo a los periodistas que estaba llorando por “una razón no relacionada con el deporte” después de pasar “por algunos días difíciles y complicados”.

En junio, la familia de Messi emitió un comunicado informando que Jorge Messi estaba “atravesando un problema de salud”.

Historias relacionadas

• Jorge Messi, padre de Lionel Messi, muere a los 68 años
• Jorge Messi, padre y agente de toda la vida de Lionel Messi, muere a los 68 años

Redes sociales relacionadas

Our hearts are with our captain, Leo, and the entire Messi family. pic.twitter.com/nJ3umEpirU

— Inter Miami CF (@InterMiamiCF) August 8, 2026

El Club Atlético Newell's Old Boys despide con profundo dolor y pesar a Jorge Messi, quien falleció a los 68 años de edad en la ciudad de Rosario.

Reconocido hincha leproso, empresario y padre del capitán del seleccionado argentino, Lionel Andrés Messi.

Jorge fue el sostén y la… pic.twitter.com/8dFPMRdM9Z

— Newell’s Old Boys (@Newells) August 8, 2026

La CONMEBOL lamenta profundamente el fallecimiento de Jorge Messi, padre del futbolista argentino Lionel Messi.

Acompañamos con respeto y afecto a Lionel, a su familia, amigos y seres queridos en este momento de profundo dolor.

Que descanse en paz. pic.twitter.com/QpTWIAgdBU

— CONMEBOL.com (@CONMEBOL) August 8, 2026

El Club Atlético Newell's Old Boys despide con profundo dolor y pesar a Jorge Messi, quien falleció a los 68 años de edad en la ciudad de Rosario.

Reconocido hincha leproso, empresario y padre del capitán del seleccionado argentino, Lionel Andrés Messi.

Jorge fue el sostén y la… pic.twitter.com/8dFPMRdM9Z

— Newell’s Old Boys (@Newells) August 8, 2026

My deepest condolences to Leo Messi and the entire Messi family on the passing of his father, Jorge.

I had the privilege of knowing and working with Jorge. He was a man of his word, and my thoughts and prayers are with his family during this difficult time. Miami has embraced…

— Francis X. Suarez (@FrancisSuarez) August 8, 2026

Varios carriles del Florida’s Turnpike quedaron cerrados la mañana del domingo por el incendio de un vehículo.

El fuego se registró cerca de la salida de Griffin Road, en el condado de Broward, justo al sur de la Interestatal 595.

El tránsito en dirección sur al parecer quedó reducido a un solo carril mientras los servicios de emergencia atendían la situación.

Más temprano en la mañana, se observó a los equipos de rescate trabajando para sofocar las llamas.

Las autoridades no han dado información sobre las circunstancias que provocaron el incendio ni sobre si alguien resultó herido.

Los padres de Jakey, Karen y Orlando Duque, sumidos en el dolor, suplicaron el sábado que la devuelvan al parque Jakey Duque, en Miami Lakes.

“Para nosotros no tiene precio”, dijo Karen Duque sobre la escultura, obra de Art & Sculpture Unlimited.

Jakey tenía 4 años cuando, el 11 de octubre de 2019, le diagnosticaron un glioma pontino intrínseco difuso, o DIPG, un tumor cerebral poco común y sumamente agresivo.

Jakey murió el 8 de junio de 2020. Como parte de un esfuerzo comunitario, las autoridades de la ciudad develaron el homenaje el 8 de mayo de 2021, en la calle 154 y la avenida 89 del noroeste.

“Significa mucho para la comunidad”, dijo Orlando Duque. “Significa mucho para nosotros, y solo queremos que vuelva... Si quieren venir en plena madrugada, como se la llevaron, y dejarla, está bien.”

Karen Duque dijo que no quieren presentar cargos.

“Solo queremos que la devuelvan”, expresó.

Eran cerca de la 1:15 a.m. del domingo cuando agentes de la policía de Hollywood acudieron a la cuadra 5300 de Plunkett Street.

Según la policía, los oficiales que llegaron al lugar encontraron a dos víctimas.

Las autoridades informaron que ambas fueron trasladadas de urgencia a un hospital cercano.

La policía dijo que capturó al sospechoso, identificado luego como Cameron Alexander, de 38 años, tras establecer un perímetro.

Las cámaras de Local 10 News captaron lo que parecía ser una bala y sangre en el pavimento.

Durante la madrugada y hasta la mañana se vio a los detectives tomando fotografías, mientras la cinta policial mantenía cerrada una parte de Plunkett Street donde trabajaban los investigadores.

También se observó a familiares conversando con los oficiales, en busca de respuestas sobre cómo y por qué su ser querido habría recibido los disparos.

Un familiar le dijo a Local 10 News que otras dos personas posiblemente vinculadas al caso podrían ser detenidas para ser interrogadas.

A lo largo de la mañana, los detectives colocaron en el suelo varios marcadores de evidencia mientras trataban de reconstruir lo ocurrido.

Los registros indican que Alexander enfrenta varios cargos, entre ellos asesinato premeditado, agresión agravada con intención de cometer un delito grave, posesión de arma por parte de un convicto y resistencia a la autoridad sin violencia.

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.

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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.

Mientras el secretario de Estado de Estados Unidos, Marco Rubio, continúa presionando al gobierno cubano para que cambie, el presidente cubano Miguel Díaz-Canel apareció en la televisión cubana este pasado fin de semana y anunció al pueblo cubano que el gobierno estaba realizando importantes “cambios transformadores” en la economía.

Díaz-Canel también dijo al pueblo cubano que se necesitarían tiempo y paciencia, dos cosas que el pueblo cubano ya no tiene. Díaz-Canel continuó diciendo que los beneficios de estos cambios comenzarán a verse para 2029.

Fuentes en Washington, D.C., me han dicho que la administración del presidente Trump está buscando determinar si hay alguien en el gobierno cubano, como Delcy Rodríguez en Venezuela, que entregue a Raúl Castro o incluso asuma el control del actual gobierno y esté dispuesto a negociar con Estados Unidos.

El Miami Herald reportó este fin de semana que el general Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casas, actual ministro del Interior de Cuba, podría ser aceptable para Estados Unidos. El general Casas es considerado de línea dura y, por lo tanto, es poco probable que rompa con el liderazgo cubano.

Como he dicho antes, el caso de Venezuela es bastante diferente al de Cuba. Mientras Raúl Castro esté vivo, creo que el gobierno cubano continuará en el poder y hará promesas al pueblo cubano que no puede cumplir.

8 de agosto: Líder opositor cubano dice que la transformación de Cuba debe incluir a quienes están en la isla

Según el líder opositor cubano José Daniel Ferrer, cualquier plan para transformar Cuba debe incluir a los cubanos que están en la isla.

Pero, ¿tienen los cubanos en la isla la capacidad y las herramientas para participar en un proceso de este tipo? Después de vivir durante casi 68 años bajo un sistema totalitario que ha moldeado los valores y las actitudes personales de la población, podría tomar tiempo no solo cambiarlo sino, más importante aún, mantener esos cambios.

Las democracias no se construyen en un día. Se necesitará tiempo y paciencia. Recordemos también que antes de la Revolución Cubana, Cuba tuvo una dictadura bajo Batista.

6 de agosto: Estados Unidos anuncia un nuevo paquete de sanciones económicas contra Cuba; también sanciona a dos de los principales generales cubanos

El Departamento de Estado de Estados Unidos anunció el jueves un nuevo paquete de sanciones económicas contra Cuba. Al mismo tiempo, también fueron sancionados dos de los principales generales de Cuba: Álvaro López Miera, ministro de Defensa, y el general Roberto Sotolongo, jefe de las Fuerzas Armadas.

5 de agosto: Según informe, la CIA crea grupo de trabajo sobre Cuba

The New York Times informó sobre la creación de un grupo de trabajo de la CIA sobre Cuba con el propósito de ejercer mayor presión sobre el gobierno cubano para que implemente cambios políticos y económicos en su sistema.

Esta noticia probablemente será recibida por Cuba como una amenaza adicional por parte de Estados Unidos.

5 de agosto: Presidente cubano confirma conversaciones en curso entre La Habana y Estados Unidos

El presidente de Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, confirmó hoy que existen conversaciones en curso entre La Habana y Washington con el propósito de evitar una confrontación militar y tratar de encontrar soluciones a los problemas entre ambas naciones.

El gobierno cubano entiende que se está quedando sin opciones y que, muy probablemente, necesitará llegar a un acuerdo con Estados Unidos. ¿Incluirá un cambio de régimen?

Actualización del 3 de agosto: Rubio habla sobre las actividades de espionaje de Cuba en Estados Unidos

El pasado fin de semana, en una entrevista con Fox News, el secretario de Estado y asesor de Seguridad Nacional de Estados Unidos, Marco Rubio, habló sobre las actividades de espionaje que Cuba continúa realizando en Estados Unidos.

Rubio afirmó que espías cubanos continúan infiltrándose en el gobierno de Estados Unidos, instituciones financieras, organizaciones e instituciones académicas. También sostuvo que Cuba sigue representando una amenaza para la seguridad nacional de Estados Unidos.

El Dr. Andy S. Gómez es el analista de Cuba de Local 10. Gómez es considerado uno de los principales especialistas sobre Cuba. Trabajó durante 32 años en el ámbito de la educación superior antes de retirarse de la Universidad de Miami en 2012.

The WHO regional director for Africa, Mohamed Yakub Janabi, told a news conference that sequencing indicated the outbreak's start. He said some cases early in the outbreak were wrongly attributed to malaria and typhoid.

“So we are chasing the virus, the virus is ahead of us,” Janabi said.

Confirmed cases of Ebola in this outbreak have reached 4,200, including over 1,900 deaths, according to the latest government figures.

The outbreak declared on May 15 is unlike most previous ones for Ebola because the Bundibugyo virus responsible for it has no approved vaccines or treatments. Early testing was conducted for the more common type of Ebola, contributing to delays.

This Ebola outbreak has killed more people at a quicker rate than any other, including the 2014-2016 outbreak that is considered the worst on record with over 11,000 deaths out of at least 28,000 cases. That outbreak took about eight months to reach 1,000 deaths.

Ebola is rare but highly contagious and can be contracted via bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen and with contaminated surfaces and materials such as bedding and clothing. The disease it causes is severe and often fatal.

Last week, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu said Ebola is spreading faster than efforts to fight it, while some health workers are striking over a lack of pay.

New cases are doubling in some hot spots, Ghebreyesus said on X after meeting with officials in the capital, Kinshasa. Health authorities have said between 60% and 70% of new cases are recorded outside of contacts being monitored, and that the outbreak is spreading at an “alarming” rate.

Access to healthcare in the region already had been challenged by years of rebel conflict in one of Congo’s most remote and vulnerable areas, near the borders of South Sudan, Uganda and Rwanda.

Several past Ebola outbreaks have also been declared late, including the 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak. That outbreak was declared in March 2014, although the first human case later was found to have occurred in December 2013.

El sismo se produjo a las 7.34 hora local (12.34 GMT) y tuvo su epicentro en San José del Palmar, un municipio ubicado en el departamento de Chocó, de acuerdo con el Servicio Geológico de Estados Unidos (USGS, por sus siglas en inglés).

La gobernadora de Chocó, Nubia Córdoba, indicó que en la capital del departamento “hay heridos y graves daños en las edificaciones”, sin especificar el número.

San José del Palmar es un pequeño municipio poblado por aproximadamente 4.700 personas, según el Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística.

El movimiento fue sentido también con fuerza en ciudades como Manizales, a 300 kilómetros de Bogotá y donde hay daños en edificaciones. También fue reportado en Ecuador y Panamá, donde se evacuaron varios edificios y oficinas públicas.

El presidente Abelardo de la Espriella indicó en X que asumió el liderazgo de la atención por la emergencia y ordenó instalar un Puesto de Mando Unificado, que reúne a las instituciones para coordinar decisiones en la atención de damnificados.

De la Espriella agregó que viajará a Pereira, una de las ciudadades más afectadas, donde imágenes compartidas por usuarios de redes sociales muestran estructuras colapsadas, incluyendo afectaciones en el techo del aeropuerto.

The epicenter was in San Jose Del Palmar, a municipality in the Choco region about 250 miles (400 kilometers) west of Colombia’s capital, Bogota, the U.S. Geological Survey and Colombia’s counterpart reported. The USGS said it struck at a depth of 66 miles (107 kilometers).

Choco Gov. Nubia Córdoba said on social media that in the regional capital, “there are injuries and serious damage to buildings,” without providing further details.

The temblor follows two back-to-back 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes in Venezuela in late June. Those earthquakes destroyed hundreds of buildings and killed more than 5,000 people.

Like Michigan, Wisconsin is one of the nation’s top electoral battlegrounds. The contest may further set the direction of the Democratic Party, as well as set the stage for a highly competitive general election where either party could emerge with complete control over state government. A competitive congressional race could also decide the majority in the closely divided U.S. House.

Four active candidates remain in the once-crowded Democratic primary field to succeed outgoing two-term Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. State Rep. Francesca Hong, a former restaurant owner and democratic socialist who entered the race in 2025 as a self-described “wild card,” has emerged as a top contender for the nomination. Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley briefly dropped out of the race in July but reentered with an endorsement from Evers. Former state cabinet secretary Joel Brennan and state Sen. Kelda Roys round out the field.

Campaign finance woes prompted Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez to exit the race, while former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes suspended his bid the same day the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that state Democratic officials had reviewed past allegations against him of inappropriate behavior toward young adult women. The Barnes campaign denied that there were any such allegations. The names of Rodriguez, Barnes and former state economic development director Missy Hughes, who dropped out in June, remain on the ballot.

The winner of the primary will likely face Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who faces minimal opposition for his party’s nomination. Tiffany, who has President Donald Trump’s endorsement, sits atop a massive war chest that not only dwarfs that of his sole primary opponent but the entire Democratic field combined. As of July 27, he had raised $13.3 million for his campaign overall and had about $5 million in the bank. Hong and Crowley had each raised slightly more than $1 million for their campaigns and had less than $500,000 in their respective campaign coffers.

Evers is Wisconsin’s third consecutive two-term governor. The race to replace him will set two longstanding political trends on a collision course. The state has a 64-year streak of electing new governors from the opposite party of their immediate predecessor. That would seemingly favor Wisconsin Republicans in November, although voters nationwide tend to punish the president’s party in midterm elections, which would favor Democrats.

About half of Wisconsin’s 33 state Senate seats and all 99 state Assembly seats are up in 2026. Republicans hold slight majorities in both chambers. For years, Wisconsin’s state legislative boundaries had been heavily gerrymandered to favor Republicans, but the liberal-leaning state Supreme Court struck down the maps in 2023 and ordered them redrawn ahead of the 2024 elections. State Democrats made gains that year and now believe they could flip control of one or both chambers in November.

Wisconsin’s congressional districts remain among the most tilted toward Republicans nationally, according to an Associated Press analysis. Republicans hold six of the state’s eight U.S. House seats. One Republican-held district is a top target of Democrats hoping to retake the chamber.

U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden of the 3rd Congressional District is unopposed for the Republican nomination in his bid for a third term. He has Trump’s endorsement. Former Eau Claire City Council President Emily Berge and former boutique owner and nonprofit founder Rebecca Cooke are vying for the Democratic nomination. Cooke ran for the seat twice before. She placed second in the 2022 primary and narrowly lost the 2024 general election to Van Orden.

Milwaukee County is by far the state’s most populous and plays a pivotal role in both Democratic and Republican primaries. However, Waukesha County tends to contribute the most votes in Republican primaries. Dane and Brown counties, home to Madison and Green Bay, respectively, are major battlegrounds for both parties. Ozaukee and Washington counties, which along with Waukesha County, form the so-called “WOW” counties in suburban Milwaukee, tend to be more influential in Republican primaries than in Democratic primaries.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont trounced former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Wisconsin presidential primary. Sanders scored big wins in Dane, Brown, Outagamie, Winnebago, Kenosha, LaCrosse and Eau Claire counties, approaching or surpassing the 60% vote mark in each. Clinton carried only Milwaukee County, which has the state’s highest share of Black residents.

Former President Joe Biden carried every county against Sanders in the 2020 presidential primary, which was held in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Sanders’ strongest performance was in Dane County.

Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:

When do polls close?

Polls close at 8 p.m. CT, which is 9 p.m. ET.

What’s on the ballot?

The AP will provide vote results and declare winners in contested primaries for U.S. House, governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, treasurer, state Senate and state Assembly.

Who gets to vote?

Any registered voter may participate in any party’s primary. Eligible voters may register at the polls on Election Day.

How many voters are there?

As of August 1, there were about 3.6 million active registered voters in Wisconsin.

How many people actually vote?

Around 500,000 voters cast ballots in the Democratic state primaries in 2022, compared to roughly 680,000 Republican primary voters.

How much of the vote is cast early or by absentee ballot?

About 26% of the vote in the 2022 primaries was cast before early in-person or by mail.

As of Friday, about 235,000 ballots had already been cast in Tuesday’s election.

When are early and absentee votes released?

Counties vary in terms of how and when they release early and absentee results. In previous elections, counties tended to release a mix of all vote types over the course of the night. Roughly a third of counties released all results, regardless of vote type, in the first vote update.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

In the 2024 state primary, the AP first reported results at 9:09 p.m. ET, or nine minutes after polls closed. About 91% of the vote had been counted by 12 a.m. ET. The last vote update of the night was at 2:59 a.m. ET with 99.8% of total votes counted.

Milwaukee County, the most populous, had counted more than 99% of the vote by its final update of the night at 1:06 a.m. ET. Dane County, home of Madison, reached more than 99% of the total vote by its final update of the night at 12:38 a.m. ET.

When will the AP declare a winner?

The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

How do recounts work?

Recounts are not automatic in Wisconsin, but a trailing candidate may request one if the winning vote margin is less than a percentage point in races where more than 4,000 votes are cast. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

Are we there yet?

As of Tuesday, there will be 84 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

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Associated Press writer David Lieb in Jefferson City, Missouri, contributed to this report.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

These are bioplastic pellets. CJ Biomaterials ferments sugar to make plant-based polymers that microbes will consume. These alternatives to traditional plastics made of fossil fuels are seen by some as one of many solutions needed to confront global plastic pollution.

At the company's Woburn research facility, lab technicians recently poured pellets into a molding machine to make forks. The test forks were thin enough for home composting, though too bendy for stabbing a steak. Other batches have been rigid, similar to a typical plastic fork. The technicians melted pellets to roll out flexible films for food packaging, like a bag for baby carrots. The film was quite strong but not stretchy like cling wrap.

They are figuring out how their biopolymers can make products with attributes similar to conventional plastics, but that can go in a composting bin instead of a trash can. Forks and films are breaking down in the lab's compost bin. Straws that were added are long gone. A recently tossed-in knife showed pitting on the surface as bacteria colonized it, starting to consume the material.

Plastics have never really fundamentally been disrupted. Now, interest in bioplastic is growing because of concern over microplastics. It’s the new “wild card” in this market, said the company’s marketing director Leah Ford.

“I’ve been doing this for a long time and the compostability has always been a really strong driver. But with the greater understanding of microplastics, I think, that’s going to change how people think about materials,” she said.

Traditional plastics last for decades or even centuries as they fragment into harmful microplastics and even smaller nanoplastics. Microplastics have been found in the ocean and the air, in our food and water, and in a wide range of body tissues. The Trump administration, while rolling back many environmental regulations, says it will address contamination from microplastics.

The most common use for bioplastics is packaging

Bioplastics are biobased, meaning they are made completely or partially from a renewable resource, commonly corn or sugar cane; or they are biodegradable, meaning that they break down completely via a natural process. They can also be both, like the polymers made by CJ Biomaterials. It’s a leader in manufacturing polyhydroxyalkanoates, or PHAs, as a polymer that is marine and soil biodegradable.

CJ Biomaterials is trying to replace conventional plastics that are single use or can’t be recycled when contaminated with food scraps. Food waste decomposing in landfills emits methane, a potent greenhouse gas that warms the planet. A container made of pellets from CJ Biomaterials with food scraps could be sent to a composter, unlike a traditional plastic container.

The Woburn lab's shelves display the company’s successes: compostable cutlery; straws; coated cups for hot beverages and frozen food pouches used in the United States; sushi trays; ramen containers; and reusable paper towels. Lab employees dine with compostable cutlery, drink from compostable cups and make coffee with compostable pods. These products last on shelves because they are not exposed to microorganisms in water or soil.

CJ Biomaterials feeds sugar to microbes that convert it to PHA for energy. The company collects the PHA and turns it into granules. Pellets of this are then sold to other companies that can melt them down and mold them into products. These same bacteria will consume PHA in a compost pile, breaking it down within six months, Ford said.

CJ Biomaterials is part of the $32 billion South Korean conglomerate CJ Group. It has been producing PHA at a manufacturing facility in Pasuruan, Indonesia, since 2022.

One solution with potential to help address the plastic pollution crisis

World Wildlife Fund sees biobased plastics as part of a suite of solutions that are needed. They can reduce the world’s dependency on fossil fuels that cause climate change, said Erin Simon, a WWF vice president. She said the world needs to reduce the amount of plastic being produced, then make the rest sustainably.

Nations are trying to confront the spiraling plastic pollution crisis by crafting a landmark treaty. They have yet to agree on any effective methods to stop plastic pollution, though negotiators plan to meet again early next year.

U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley has held congressional hearings on plastic pollution, including one exploring alternatives for single-use plastics. He also views bioplastics as one option with potential, among many that are needed. But, he said, more information is needed about how they break down and impact ecosystems and health.

Environmental groups, including the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, argue that bioplastics maintain the single-use paradigm and distract from real solutions. Some say farmland shouldn't be used to grow crops for plastic instead of food.

Bioplastics are a small, but growing, share of the market

Globally, biobased plastics represent roughly 0.5% of the more than 400 million metric tons (440 million tons) of plastics produced annually, according to the industry group European Bioplastics. Production is projected to double by 2030 due to rising demand and the emergence of more advanced applications and products, it said.

China, Sweden and the United States are major exporters of natural polymers.

Large sports stadiums and major restaurant chains such as McDonald's are experimenting with biobased packaging and utensils. The Tous les Jours bakery, part of the CJ Group, uses PHA straws.

There are obstacles to widespread adoption. Bioplastics typically cost more than conventional plastics. Major cities have municipal composting programs, but they are limited elsewhere. A growing number of composting facilities accept compostable bioplastic products, though some refuse out of concern about degraded soil quality. And because bioplastics and conventional plastics often look and feel identical, they can be mixed up and cause problems for composters.

Thirty minutes from the Woburn research lab, Black Earth Compost accepts certified compostable materials. On Monday, compostable cups, cutlery and bin liners were mixed in with a delivery of food scraps and lobster shells. Accepting bioplastics increases the amount of food scraps they receive because people can put an entire compostable container into an organics bin, instead of scraping food out.

Research organization tests biomaterials

The 5 Gyres Institute tested 22 items made of traditional plastic, biobased and biodegradable materials and other alternatives, such as paper and bamboo. Straws, utensils, thin film and bottles were put in different environments across Florida, California and Maine. By the end of the 64-week study, many of the biodegradable materials were gone, or were pitted and cracked as they fragmented. Traditional fossil fuel-based plastics persisted.

Marcus Eriksen, the institute’s co-founder and a researcher, said the synthetic plastic spoon was almost the same as when he first put it in the ocean, but little was left of the spoons made from biodegradable materials.

The California-based nonprofit released the results in 2023. It's currently repeating the study to evaluate end-of-life scenarios for the new generation of packaging.

Eriksen thinks people should use biodegradable options, especially for packaging. Otherwise, he said, “we’re going to flood the entire biosphere with micro- and nanoplastics.”

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The state has been at the center of a political maelstrom in President Donald Trump’s second term, as the Republican president has focused much of his ire on Minnesota and its Democratic leaders.

An ongoing fraud investigation into state childcare programs contributed to Democratic Gov. Tim Walz ending his reelection bid and has been a frequent topic among Republican candidates on the campaign trail. Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown that resulted in the deaths of two U.S. citizens has been a defining issue for Democratic candidates.

Walz’s retirement announcement, as well as that of Democratic U.S. Sen. Tina Smith, triggered a reshuffling of races throughout the ballot.

In the race to replace Smith, U.S. Rep. Angie Craig and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan are the leading contenders for the Democratic nomination. Smith has backed Flanagan, while Walz has not made an endorsement. Flanagan also has support from key figures in the party’s progressive wing, including U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont and U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar of the 5th Congressional District. Sanders is an independent but caucuses with Democrats.

Craig’s key supporters are Minnesota first lady Gwen Walz, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

Craig has about doubled Flanagan in overall fundraising. She also had about $3.6 million available to spend as of late July compared with about $1.1 million for Flanagan.

The Center Forward Committee and Unite to Win — two political action committees known for backing moderate Democrats — have spent at least $2.4 million on Craig’s behalf. The Center Forward Committee was founded by former Alabama U.S. Rep. Bud Cramer and supports what it describes as “pragmatic policymakers.” Unite to Win recently spent $4 million backing U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens in her unsuccessful U.S. Senate primary bid against Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan.

Flanagan’s largest backer in outside spending has been the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association, which has spent about $1.2 million on the race.

The Republican primary features nine candidates, including former sports broadcaster Michele Tafoya; former Navy SEAL Adam Schwarze, who has the state party’s endorsement; and former professional basketball player Royce White, who was the Republican nominee for the state’s other U.S. Senate seat in 2024. Trump has not endorsed a candidate.

Tafoya raised about $5.3 million for her campaign and had about $1.3 million in the bank as of July 22, a larger haul than the rest of the Republican field combined.

In the race for governor, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar faces minimal opposition for the Democratic nomination. She brought in $9.3 million for her campaign and had about $4.5 million in the bank as of July 20. Only three of Klobuchar’s six primary opponents filed campaign finance disclosures, and they reported having less than a combined $3,200 in the bank.

The nine-candidate Republican field includes state House Speaker Lisa Demuth, MyPillow founder and prominent 2020 election denierMike Lindell, who has Trump’s endorsement, and healthcare executive Kendall Qualls, who has the state party’s backing.

Lindell outraised Demuth overall in the campaign, although Demuth sat atop a significantly larger war chest as of July 20.

Craig is the only member of Minnesota’s U.S. House delegation who isn’t running for reelection. Her upcoming departure has triggered a six-way Democratic primary to replace her in the 2nd Congressional District. The field includes state Rep. Kaela Berg, state Sen. Matt Klein and former state Sen. Matt Little. Klein leads the field in fundraising, followed by Little, who loaned his campaign $155,000.

The winner will face Republican state Sen. Eric Pratt, who is unopposed for the nomination.

Craig won reelection in 2024 with about 56% of the vote. Democratic then-Vice President Kamala Harris received about 52% of the district vote in the 2024 presidential race against Trump.

All seats in both chambers of the Minnesota State Legislature are up in 2026. Democrats have a one-seat advantage in the 67-member state Senate, while Democrats and Republicans are deadlocked at 67 seats each in the state 134-member House.

Hennepin County, which is home to Minneapolis, is by far the state’s most populous and tends to contribute the most votes of any county in both Democratic and Republican statewide primaries. Neighboring Ramsey County, which is home to St. Paul, has the second-largest population but tends to be a bigger factor in Democratic primaries. Just north of the Twin Cities, Anoka County, which Trump carried in 2024 by about 4 percentage points, tends to be more influential in Republican primaries. Dakota, Washington, St. Louis and Olmsted counties are important primary battlegrounds for both parties.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s 2006 reelection was the last statewide contest Republicans have won in Minnesota. The last Republican to win a U.S. Senate race in Minnesota was Norm Coleman in 2002.

Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:

When do polls close?

Polls close at 8 p.m. CT, which is 9 p.m. ET.

What’s on the ballot?

The Associated Press will provide vote results and declare winners in contested primaries for U.S. Senate, U.S. House, governor, secretary of state, auditor, attorney general, state Senate and state House.

Who gets to vote?

Any registered voter may participate in any party’s primary. Eligible voters may register at the polls on Election Day or during the early voting period.

How many voters are there?

As of Aug. 3, there were about 3.9 million registered voters in Minnesota.

How many people actually vote?

About 324,000 Democratic primary voters and about 194,000 Republican primary voters took part in the 2024 primaries for U.S. Senate. In the 2022 primaries for governor, about 432,000 voters cast ballots in the Democratic primary and about 323,000 in the Republican primary.

How much of the vote is cast early or by absentee ballot?

About 23% of the vote in the 2024 state primary and about 20% of the 2022 primary vote was cast early in person or by mail.

As of Thursday, about 158,000 ballots had already been cast in Tuesday’s election.

When are early and absentee votes released?

Counties tend to release results from early in-person and mail voting over the course of the night, along with results from in-person Election Day voting.

The state’s three largest counties of Hennepin, Ramsey and Dakota release relatively few results in their first vote updates, regardless of vote type.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

In the 2024 state primary, the AP first reported results at 9:08 p.m. ET, or eight minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 1:28 a.m. ET, with more than 99% of total votes counted.

When will the AP declare a winner?

The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

How do recounts work?

Recounts in Minnesota are not automatic, but the losing candidate may request one under certain circumstances. A publicly funded recount can be requested in federal, judicial or state constitutional offices, like governor, if the margin between the winning and losing candidate is less than 0.25% of the vote. For state legislative races, the required margin is less than 0.5% of the vote. In races in which fewer than 400 votes are cast, the margin is 10 votes or fewer. Candidates may pay for a recount in races in which the vote margin is beyond the threshold for a publicly funded recount. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

Are we there yet?

As of Tuesday, there will be 84 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

___

Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

The announcement comes a few weeks after Taylor Farms voluntarily recalled its iceberg lettuce products sourced from central Mexico because of a potential link to a multistate cyclospora outbreak that has sickened people across the U.S.

Taylor Fresh Foods said that it was pulling some products including jalapenos from stores shelves after finding out that Coast Citrus Distributors was voluntarily recalling fresh jalapeños due to a potential salmonella contamination.

Taylor Fresh Foods said that the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were working with state and local partners to investigate illnesses in a multistate outbreak of salmonella infections linked to fresh jalapeños supplied by Coast Citrus Distributors. The company said that a grower in Sinaloa, Mexico, a supplier to Coast Citrus Distributors, was identified as the potential source in the outbreak.

Taylor Fresh Foods said that it is no longer sourcing products from the farmer and will be filling orders from alternative suppliers. The company is currently not aware of any reported illnesses linked to its products containing jalapeños.

The list of recalled products were distributed by Taylor Farms in multiple states with a “Best If Used By” date up to and including Aug. 16, 2026. The products were sold at stores including Kroger, Stop & Shop, Target, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's and Walmart.

Consumers who have any recalled product are advised to discard it immediately and not eat it. Refunds are available at the location of purchase.

Consumers with any questions can contact Taylor at 855-455-0098 Monday through Friday from 8am-5pm PT.

The contests take place as elements within the party look to redefine the Democratic brand ahead of the midterm elections by replacing old guard figures with younger and often more progressive alternatives.

Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont is running for a third term but must first clear a challenge from state Rep. Josh Elliott. Both candidates have raised just shy of $400,000 in contributions from individual donors. Nonetheless, Lamont, a wealthy former cable entrepreneur, has far outspent Elliott, thanks to $9.5 million in personal funds he’s invested in his campaign. Elliott has received about $3.8 million from the state’s public election funding program.

A primary upset by Elliott, along with additional Tuesday primaries in Minnesota and Wisconsin, could extend a progressive winning streak that began this summer with the defeat of Democratic incumbents in New York City and Colorado and continued with a high-stakes victory in the Michigan U.S. Senate primary on August 4.

The Democratic nominee will face Republican state Sen. Ryan Fazio in November. Republicans last controlled the governorship from 1995 to 2011. Lamont was first elected in 2018 with 49% of the vote and reelected in 2022 with 56%.

In the 1st Congressional District, longtime Democratic U.S. Rep. John Larson is running for a 15th term. Challenging him for the nomination are former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, Hartford Board of Education member Ruth Fortune and state Rep. Jillian Gilchrest.

This year marks Larson’s first primary challenge since he was first elected in 1998. He won a close primary that year with 46% of the vote but has not appeared on a primary ballot in his subsequent 13 reelection bids.

Bronin has slightly outraised and outspent Larson in the campaign overall, although Larson had a slight edge in terms of available cash heading into the primary campaign’s final three weeks. Gilchrest and Fortune trailed far behind in fundraising.

Larson turned 78 in July. In 2025, an incident on the House floor sparked concerns over his health and age when he suffered what he later described as a complex partial seizure while delivering a speech. He said the episode, which caused him to briefly but abruptly stop speaking, was related to a heart condition that he now treats with medication.

The district is heavily Democratic. Larson received 63% of the vote in his 2024 reelection campaign. Then-Vice President Kamala Harris received about 61% of the district vote in the presidential race.

All 36 state Senate seats and all 151 state House seats are up in 2026. Democrats hold two-to-one majorities in both chambers.

Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:

When do polls close?

Polls close at 8 p.m. ET.

What’s on the ballot?

The Associated Press will provide vote results and declare winners in contested primaries for U.S. House, governor, state Senate and state House.

Who gets to vote?

Voters registered with a political party may participate only in that party’s primary. Democrats may not vote in the Republican primary or vice versa. Independent or unaffiliated voters may not participate in either primary.

How many voters are there?

As of October 2025, there were about 2.5 million registered voters in Connecticut, including about 878,000 Democrats and about 529,000 Republicans.

How many people actually vote?

About 114,000 Democratic primary ballots and about 94,000 Republican primary ballots were cast in the 2022 state primaries.

How much of the vote is cast early or by absentee ballot?

Early voting was enacted in Connecticut after 2022. There was no statewide Democratic primary in 2024, but about 17% of the Republican primary vote in the 2024 state primary was cast early in-person or by mail.

As of Friday, about 43,000 Democratic primary ballots and about 3,900 Republican primary ballots had already been cast in Tuesday’s election.

When are early and absentee votes released?

Connecticut runs elections at the town and city level. There are 169 separate jurisdictions administering local elections and they vary in terms of how and when they release results. In many of the larger jurisdictions, results from a mix of voting methods are released together throughout the night.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

In the 2024 general election, the AP first reported results at 8:12 p.m. ET, or 12 minutes after polls closed. The vote count reached the halfway mark at 12:25 a.m. ET. By 2:06 p.m. ET the day after Election Day, about 90% of the total vote had been counted.

When will the AP declare a winner?

The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

How do recounts work?

Recounts in Connecticut are automatic if the vote margin is less than 0.5% of the total votes cast but does not exceed 2,000 votes. Recounts are also automatic in races where the margin is less than 20 votes or in the case of a tie vote. If a recount results in a tie vote, a runoff election (called an “adjourned election” in Connecticut) is held. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

Are we there yet?

As of Tuesday, there will be 84 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

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The AP's Matthew Junkroski contributed to this report.

___

Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

Voters will also decide contested Democratic primaries for lieutenant governor and state auditor and choose a Republican nominee to challenge Democratic U.S. Rep. Becca Balint in November.

Scott is one of only two Republican governors to serve a state that then-Vice President Kamala Harris carried in the 2024 election. But toppling him this fall will be no easy feat. He received 73% of the vote in his 2024 reelection bid, improving upon the 69% he won in 2022.

He’s also been a rare Republican critic of President Donald Trump. Scott not only endorsed former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley for president in the 2024 primaries, but he also says he voted for Harris over Trump in 2024 and for Joe Biden in 2020. He is unopposed for the Republican nomination.

Two Democrats are running to challenge Scott: economist Amanda Janoo and former child advocacy organization CEO Aly Richards, who boasts endorsements from former Democratic Govs. Howard Dean and Madeleine Kunin. Richards has raised about $453,000 for her campaign, compared to about $308,000 for Janoo. Richards also had about double Janoo’s cash reserves as of the end of July.

In Vermont, the governor, lieutenant governor and other state constitutional officers serve two-year terms. If Scott is reelected and completes another term, he’ll surpass Dean as Vermont’s longest serving governor since it became a state.

All 30 state Senate seats and all 150 state House seats are up in 2026. Democratic state lawmakers suffered significant losses in the 2024 general election, losing more than two dozen seats across both chambers, along with their supermajorities. This year could prove to be another difficult one for the party but for different reasons: Democratic incumbents in five state Senate districts and 11 state House districts face primary challengers. Republican incumbents face challengers in only one state Senate district.

For state legislative primaries, the number of winners in each contest varies by district. With multiple winners in many seats and relatively low turnout for down-ballot primaries, especially on the Republican side, determining the winners could come down to a relatively small number of votes.

Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:

When do polls close?

Polls close at 7 p.m. ET.

What’s on the ballot?

The Associated Press will provide vote results and declare winners in contested primaries for U.S. House, governor, lieutenant governor, auditor, state Senate and state House.

Who gets to vote?

Any registered voter may participate in any party’s primary. Vermont does not register voters by party.

How many voters are there?

As of July, there were about 501,000 registered voters in Vermont.

How many people actually vote?

About 23,000 Republican primary voters and about 33,000 Democratic primary voters cast ballots in the 2024 gubernatorial primaries.

How much of the vote is cast early or by absentee ballot?

About 30% of the vote in the 2024 state primary was cast by mail. In the presidential primaries that year, about 24% of Democratic primary voters and about 13% of Republican primary voters cast mail ballots.

As of Friday, about 17,000 ballots had already been cast in Tuesday’s election.

When are early and absentee votes released?

Vermont runs elections at the town and city level. There are 247 separate jurisdictions administering local elections, and they vary in terms of how and when they release results. In many of the larger jurisdictions, the bulk of results from both mail voting and in-person Election Day voting are released together in their first vote updates.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

In the 2024 state primary, the AP first reported results at 7:18 p.m. ET, or 18 minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 11:45 p.m. ET with about 87% of total votes counted.

When will the AP declare a winner?

The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

How do recounts work?

A candidate may request a recount if the vote margin falls below a certain threshold. In federal, statewide and state Senate elections, a recount may be requested if the vote margin between the winning and losing candidate is 2% or less of the total votes cast, divided by the number of persons to be elected for that position. For state House and local races, the required margin is 5% or less of the total votes cast, divided by the number of persons to be elected. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

Are we there yet?

As of Tuesday, there will be 84 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

___

The AP’s Matthew Junkroski contributed to this report.

___

Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

Progressive candidates for governor in Wisconsin and U.S. Senate in Minnesota are making their final pushes ahead of Tuesday’s election, increasing the pressure on the Democratic establishment. In Wisconsin, democratic socialist Francesca Hong seeks to win a four-way Democratic primary for governor. Minnesota voters will choose between moderate U.S. Rep. Angie Craig and progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan in a Democratic U.S. Senate primary in the aftermath of Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement surge.

Iran says it will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz until the United States lifts its blockade on the strait, pays compensation for months of war damage, lifts economic sanctions and releases Iran’s frozen assets. And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flatly rejected Trump's proposed exit strategy for Gaza.

Here’s the latest:

Washington grapples with a National Guard deployment extended until 2029

It’s been 12 months since Trump announced a crime emergency in Washington, pledging to make the city “safe and beautiful” and deploying the National Guard.

But a mission that seemed temporary has been extended through January 2029. Residents and a new cadre of local officials consider it an unacceptable federal attempt to restrict the heavily Democratic city’s autonomy. A year in, they still question the necessity of troops on the streets of the nation’s capital.

“Here we are in the capital of the free world, and our president is treating it like a police state,” said Scott Michelman, legal director of the ACLU of the District of Columbia.

The continued deployment will be a major test for the politicians taking office after this year’s elections — residents will want them to use their limited powers to push back on Republican encroachment into the city’s affairs.

▶ Read more

Democrats investigating immigration efforts against military families

Congressional Democrats are probing the Trump administration’s efforts to deport military service members and their families after The Associated Press found that the spouses or parents of more than 50 active-duty troops have been detained by immigration authorities, breaking promises to shield their families from enforcement.

More than 60 lawmakers signed a letter Sunday evening to the Department of Homeland Security, the Defense Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs. It says “these efforts imperil military readiness, weaken service members’ morale, and betray America’s promises to the people who put their lives on the line for our nation.”

The Pentagon declined to comment, stating it would “reply directly to the authors of the letter.”

DHS told the AP that it values service members’ contributions but “U.S. military service alone does not automatically grant lawful immigration status, or exempt aliens from the consequences of violating U.S. immigration laws.”

▶ Read more

White House mum on Israel’s rejection of Trump’s Gaza deal

The White House has not commented on the Israeli Prime Minister’s dismissal of Trump’s deal for Gaza. Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel’s military “will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed.”

Netanyahu told a Cabinet meeting that “Israel rejects the 15-point document” but is still discussing plans for Gaza with Washington. Trump had said Israeli forces would withdraw as the Hamas militant group’s disarmament is completed. Israeli forces control over half the Palestinian enclave of about 2 million people that’s been largely destroyed.

“We remain committed to the road map,” said a member of the Hamas political bureau, Bassem Naim, adding that the group expects mediators and the U.S. to pressure Netanyahu — who also faces domestic tensions as he struggles to hold onto power ahead of the next elections scheduled for Oct. 27.

Ocasio-Cortez says she’s freezing her eggs as she decides her next political moves

The 36-year-old Democratic New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez explained her decision in an ABC “This Week” interview on Sunday and said she has not ruled out running for president or for the U.S. Senate seat held by the Democrats’ floor leader, Chuck Schumer.

Ocasio-Cortez says in her social media posts that she’s taking a political risk in sharing such a personal decision about her potential plans to have children. The congresswoman says she wants to feel more control over her life and normalize conversations about what women face in their professional and personal lives.

▶ Read more

Iran presses demands on US as shipping standoff grinds on

An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Iran will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz until the United States meets its conditions.

“It is up to the U.S. side to stop and make amends for its illegal and destructive actions,” Esmail Baghaei said Monday, noting the American blockade of Iranian ports.

Iran wants the U.S. to lift its blockade on the Strait, pay compensation for months of war damage, lift economic sanctions and release Iran’s frozen assets. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz — a waterway that normally carries roughly one-fifth of the world’s traded oil supplies — has become the war’s most lasting consequence. The impasse has kept energy prices as a major focus of U.S. politics ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Iran is holding separate talks with Oman over transit through the strait, including potentially a temporary shipping corridor, but has said any actual reopening is contingent on talks with the U.S.

▶ Read more

Wisconsin’s chaotic primary pits progressive against governor’s pick

Democratic socialist Francesca Hong is trying to win a four-way Democratic primary for governor in Wisconsin, where her top opponent has been endorsed by popular Gov. Tony Evers, who isn’t seeking a third term.

Evers got behind Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley on July 18, the same day Crowley reentered the race after dropping out 10 days earlier. Crowley rejoined after the candidate he backed, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, ended her candidacy amid a campaign finance scandal.

Evers and more establishment Democrats were hoping to finally coalesce around Crowley in the final days of the chaotic primary that saw two other candidates drop out, most notably former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes on July 29.

Republicans are spending to support a Hong victory, betting she's the better matchup for Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany in November. The Republican Governors Association has spent nearly $3.6 million through its Right Direction Wisconsin PAC on ads contrasting Hong with Trump and playing up her liberal proposals.

▶ Read more

Trump’s immigration crackdown looms over Minnesota’s bruising Senate primary

Efforts to resist Trump found their footing in the streets surrounding a drab federal office complex next to the Minneapolis airport. As U.S. immigration agents staged at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building for a monthslong deportation campaign, protesters with whistles and cellphone cameras assembled to oppose them. Two were shot and killed in the city’s streets before Trump pulled back under pressure.

Months later, those confrontations remain the backdrop to Minnesota’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate on Tuesday, which features establishment-backed U.S. Rep. Angie Craig and the more progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan. The immigration debate is an added schism in a race that otherwise echoes many of the other left versus center divides that have played out across the United States this year.

▶ Read more

According to the chef operations manager of Primo’s Italian Restaurant on North Bayshore Drive, Richard James Scott called himself the son of God before he was finally handcuffed and arrested.

Cellphone video captured the moment police used a Taser on Scott outside the restaurant.

“It was a bad time for our people, for my employee, especially for the customers,” said Ugo Patierno, the restaurant’s chef operations manager.

Patierno said Scott tried to pay for a couple of drinks with a fake credit card before telling him to charge it to his room at the neighboring Doubletree by Hilton Grand Hotel. But the number Scott gave for the room was also fake: 666, Patierno said.

“He said, ‘I’m the son of God. So this is my room, you can charge on my room.’ I laughed the first time,” Patierno said.

Patierno said Scott eventually became aggressive, yelling at him and the staff. They asked him to leave, but he refused, and police were called, Patierno said.

According to Patierno, that started a prolonged interaction with police before Scott finally got up and walked out of the hotel restaurant.

Outside, he allegedly tried to get into a Rolls-Royce that wasn’t his. That’s when police used a Taser on him.

Scott was taken to jail, where he was booked on trespassing and disorderly conduct charges.

He appeared in bond court Sunday afternoon, where a judge set his bond at $650.

Scott was also ordered to stay away from the hotel and restaurant.

Lindsey Graham won the June 9 Republican primary for renomination to the seat he first won in 2002, but his unexpected death on July 11 from an aortic tear created a vacancy not only for his current U.S. Senate seat but also for his spot on the November ballot as the party’s pick to compete for another six-year term.

U.S. Sen. Darline Graham, who was appointed by Republican Gov. Henry McMaster to fill her brother’s vacant seat, has President Donald Trump’s endorsement to compete in the general election as the new Republican nominee. Among those challenging her in the special primary are U.S. Reps. Russell Fry and Ralph Norman, former Gov. Mark Sanford and business owner Mark Lynch, who ran against Lindsey Graham in the June 9 primary.

Norman recently sought the nomination for governor and placed third in the primary.

If no candidate receives a vote majority in the special primary, the top two vote-getters will advance to a special primary runoff on Aug. 25.

The winner will face Democratic nominee Annie Andrews, a Charleston pediatrician who challenged Republican U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace in the 2022 general election.

Lindsey Graham last won reelection in 2020 with 54% of the vote. Trump carried the state in the 2024 presidential election with 58% of the vote.

Greenville County is the most populous in the state and typically contributes the most votes in statewide Republican primaries. It also has a bit of an independent streak. In the June 9 primary, a plurality of Greenville County voters preferred Lynch over Lindsey Graham in the U.S. Senate race and Norman over the two candidates who would advance to the runoff for governor.

Democratic-leaning Richland and Charleston counties have the next-largest populations and contribute a sizable number of votes in Republican primaries, but they tend to be more influential in Democratic contests.

Horry, Lexington and Spartanburg counties are also large counties that have big impacts on Republican primaries. Spartanburg was the only other county where Lynch outperformed Lindsey Graham in the June primary.

Besides Greenville County, Norman also was the top vote-getter in York County and three smaller neighboring counties, all in his 5th Congressional District, in the June gubernatorial primary.

Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:

When do polls close?

Polls close at 7 p.m. ET.

What’s on the ballot?

The Associated Press will provide vote results and declare winners in the special Republican primary for U.S. Senate.

Who gets to vote?

Voters who participated in the Democratic primary on June 9 may not participate in the special Republican primary on Tuesday. Only Republican primary voters or registered voters who did not participate in any party’s primary may cast ballots in Tuesday’s election.

How many voters are there?

As of Friday, there were about 3.4 million registered voters in South Carolina. Voters in South Carolina do not register by party.

How many people actually vote?

About 465,000 voters cast ballots in the June 9 Republican U.S. Senate primary in which Lindsey Graham was renominated. About 319,000 voters participated in the June 23 Republican gubernatorial primary runoff.

How much of the vote is cast early or by absentee ballot?

About 29% of the vote in the June 9 Republican state primary was cast early in person or by mail.

As of Friday, about 42,000 ballots had already been cast in Tuesday’s election.

When are early and absentee votes released?

Nearly all of South Carolina’s 46 counties release all or almost all of their early in-person and mail voting results in the first vote update of the night, usually before releasing any results from in-person Election Day voting.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

In the June 9 primary election, the AP first reported results at 7:22 p.m. ET, or 22 minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 12:19 a.m. ET, with more than 99% of total votes counted.

When will the AP declare a winner?

The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

How do recounts work?

In South Carolina, recounts are automatic if the margin between the winning and losing candidates is 1% of the total vote or less. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

Are we there yet?

As of Tuesday, there will be 84 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

___

Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

The Peanut Butter Jelly Project took over the second floor at Fort Lauderdale High School this year, as organizers stacked tables with backpacks, notebooks, pens and pencils.

All of the supplies were ready for students like Valeria Ruiz, who is looking forward to beginning fifth grade.

“I’m excited to start school next week because school is a place you make friends and you start learning about new things every year,” she said.

For 10 years now, Peanut Butter Jelly Project founder Brooke Waltzer has been lightening the load for families in need.

“Some of these lists that they get are $250-$300 for the whole school year,” she said. “Sometimes that means paying a light bill or getting your kids school supplies that they need.”

To go along with the new school supplies, changes are coming to the breakfast and lunch menus at schools in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

The universal free lunch programs have ended for many students, as only 141 Broward schools will offer free lunch while in Miami-Dade, only 121 schools will continue with free lunch.

For campuses that don’t qualify, parents will need to submit an application to determine whether their child can receive free or reduced lunch.

“This is a choice that I am making to feel more in control of my life,” Ocasio-Cortez, 36, said on Instagram about her decision regarding her reproductive options.

The New York congresswoman, a leading figure of Democrats' progressive left flank, did not say explicitly whether she plans to have children. She said in her social media posts that she was taking a “political risk” in talking so personally about her potential family plans.

She said later on ABC “This Week” on Sunday that she has not ruled out running for president or for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrats’ floor leader, Chuck Schumer of New York, in 2028. She explained that she wants to normalize conversations about what women face in their professional and personal lives, while also highlighting the policies of President Donald Trump's administration.

“In this political environment, where this administration is denying reproductive care to women across the country, from abortion rights to the ability to carry out a healthy pregnancy, I think it’s important for us as leaders to have these conversations,” she said.

Trump's administration opposes abortion rights, and the Republican president's first-term appointees to the Supreme Court provided the margins in the 2022 ruling that struck down the Roe v. Wade decision that had established a constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy.

Separately, however, Trump in 2025 signed an executive order designed to lower the costs of in vitro fertilization.

Ocasio-Cortez sponsored a Democratic bill in 2022, when the party controlled the House, to codify abortion rights into federal law after the Supreme Court's abortion decision.

As part of her weekend announcement, Ocasio-Cortez noted that women — in politics and other fields — face different standards and scrutiny about their family status.

“Men run for office, or frankly they interview for jobs, and people don’t think in the back of their minds, 'OK, this guy’s running for office, how old is he? Oh, well, is he going to want to start a family?'” she said.

But a mission that seemed temporary has been extended through January 2029. Residents and a new cadre of local officials see in it an unacceptable attempt by the federal government to restrict the heavily Democratic city's autonomy and, a year in, still question why having troops on the streets of the nation's capital is necessary.

“There’s a deep irony that here we are in the capital of the free world, and our president is treating it like a police state,” said Scott Michelman, legal director of the ACLU of the District of Columbia. “D.C. residents have lived with our National Guard troops in our neighborhoods for about a year, despite the absence of any genuine emergency and really any reason for them to be here.”

The continued deployment will be a major test for a new batch of political candidates expected to take office after the midterms this fall. Residents will look to them to push back on the Republican president's encroachment into the city's affairs — although they are limited in what they can do to counter it.

A temporary deployment goes on and on

On Aug. 11, 2025, Trump announced that he was launching a federal law enforcement surge in Washington aimed at fighting crime. As of Aug. 4, more than 4,600 military personnel from D.C. and 24 states and territories were still deployed alongside unknown numbers of less visible federal law enforcement officers. Some are expected to be withdrawn toward the end of the summer.

Small groups of armed guard members have become a routine presence on the streets of Washington. They have supported arrest operations but are also seen patrolling tourist areas, such as along the Tidal Basin during the Cherry Blossom Festival and in neighborhoods such as Georgetown where violent crimes are rare. They have helped with medical emergencies, snow removal and beautification projects — initiatives that have received support from some residents.

Extending the deployment into 2029 will cost about $1.4 billion, according to a Defense Department estimate.

“President Trump has transformed D.C. from a crime-ridden city into a safe and beautiful haven for residents and visitors alike,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in an email.

Figures posted to the U.S. attorney's office for the District of Columbia credit the surge with more than 13,000 arrests.

Crime, which was falling before the surge began, continues to drop. Metropolitan Police Department statistics show overall crime was down 20% through Aug. 7, compared with the same period in 2025. That includes a 32% drop in homicides, from 97 to 66.

But there’s a debate over how much of that success is owed to Trump’s mission or to yearslong local efforts to chip away at the crime rate.

What is certain is that locals feel the weight of the deployment and do not see a clear way to push back against it. National Guard deployments to other cities have been blocked by courts, and a lawsuit challenging the deployment is pending, but critics of the surge are not hopeful.

“The fact that we still have the National Guard walking our streets a year later with no end in sight is really demoralizing,” city council member Brianne K. Nadeau said.

Autonomy is a top priority for newly elected candidates

Because Washington is a congressionally established federal district, Trump has much greater influence over the police and D.C. National Guard, which he controls directly, including its commander.

The Home Rule Act, passed in 1973, allows residents to vote for local leaders, including the mayor and council members. Congress has oversight over the local budget and review authority of all laws passed and the ability to summon district officials to the Capitol routinely to explain themselves. The D.C. delegate to Congress is a nonvoting position.

The city’s governmental structure under home rule made it easy for Trump to do what he has done, Nadeau said.

“There isn’t really any political liability for national leaders to mess with D.C. because nobody really cares,” outside of those directly impacted, she said.

The law enforcement surge played a major role in Democratic primary elections in June, which elevated candidates who have made Washington's autonomy and statehood top priorities.

Janeese Lewis George, a democratic socialist who in the overwhelmingly Democratic city is likely to be its next mayor, has already rankled Trump. He threatened to put the city under federal control if she wins.

Robert White Jr., another pro-statehood candidate, won the Democratic primary for the city's seat in Congress.

And while they are hamstrung by the city's status, both hope they have strategies that can help fight back against the president and the deployment.

White told The Associated Press he plans to build “an army of residents” and allies to target swing districts and work at “un-electing" people critical of the district and “electing those who do support D.C.”

The action is similar to one a former D.C. congressional delegate, Walter Fauntroy, successfully pursued in 1972, mobilizing Black voters and allies against a South Carolina Congress member who had long opposed D.C.'s independence.

“He didn't deploy that strategy a bunch of times, but it sent a signal to people to lay off of D.C.,” White said.

The city's outgoing mayor, Muriel Bowser, avoided the kind of biting rhetoric and personal attacks typical of other high-profile Democratic leaders, despite the unprecedented intervention into her city. A major part of that was to avoid raising Trump’s ire and threaten what independence the city has.

An emailed statement from Bowser's office said that despite challenges to its independence the city has progressed in achieving its goals. "The safety and well-being of everyone in our city remains our top priority and protecting home rule remains our North Star,” the statement said.

“We’re more than monuments and politics,” Bowser said in a 48-second video pinned to her X account.

She said the city is made up of more than 700,00 taxpaying Americans who serve in the military, run businesses and raise families and "we don’t have voting representation in Congress. We don’t control the D.C. National Guard, and we don’t have full access to full American democracy.”

Concerns over troops in the city during elections

Donna Powell, who is living part time in the city, said she and her husband walk and metro everywhere. “We’re already safe and beautiful,” she said. “We don’t need all these National Guard here.”

The money could be better spent “on healthcare and food for families that need it.”

The National Guard deployment has raised concerns among some over what the upcoming midterms and the 2028 presidential election will look like with troops on the streets.

“The last time this president was supposed to come out of power, Jan. 6 happened," said Alex Dodds, co-founder of FreeDC, an activist group that has protested the deployment by following and filming National Guard troops in quiet areas of the city far away from crime concerns. "Imagine if that happens again but this time he has 5,000 troops standing at the ready to be part of that situation. You know, that’s our worry.”

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

Iran presses demands on US as shipping standoff grinds on

An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Iran will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz until the United States met its conditions.

“It is up to the U.S. side to stop and make amends for its illegal and destructive actions,” Esmail Baghaei said Monday, noting the American blockade of Iranian ports.

Iran wants the U.S. to lift the blockade, pay compensation for months of war damage, lift economic sanctions and release Iran's frozen assets. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz — a waterway that normally carries roughly one-fifth of the world's traded oil supplies — has become the war’s most lasting consequence. The impasse has kept energy prices as a major focus of U.S. politics ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Iran is holding separate talks with Oman over transit through the strait, including potentially a temporary shipping corridor. But it has said any actual reopening is contingent on talks with the U.S.

Israel declares closed military zone in Taybeh

Israel's military said Monday it had declared a Christian-majority town in the occupied West Bank a closed military zone to keep out Israeli settlers and other non-residents.

The new tactic is designed to keep Israelis out of Taybeh, which is surrounded by settlements to its east and west and has been subject to arson, vandalism and settlers coming onto private and village property. The order does not apply to Palestinian residents or journalists, who the army said would be allowed unless soldiers determine their presence poses a threat. The army said its troops would detain suspects and disperse gatherings to keep the peace.

The designation comes after months of the army and police struggling to maintain order throughout the territory, where at least 87 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers or soldiers in 2026, according to the Ramallah-based Palestinian Health Ministry. Parts of Taybeh lie in what's called “Area B” where Israel maintains security control, but residents have complained that the army and police are slow to respond to attacks by extremist settlers.

Yemen provides death toll on Sunday's Houthi attack on Red Sea

town

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels attacked a Red Sea port town controlled by government forces on Sunday, killing seven and injuring 30 people. Yemen’s Defense Ministry — which operates under its internationally recognized government — said four military personnel and three civilians were killed.

The attack on Mokha is the latest in one of the largest waves of Houthi strikes on Yemeni military positions and areas held by the Saudi-backed government since a 2022 truce. It comes as threats to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz have renewed focus on the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb Strait at its southern tip. Some shipping has shifted toward that route with Hormuz largely off limits to traffic.

Beekeepers try to restart honey production in Gaza

More than two years of war in Gaza flattened most of the territory and destroyed sectors of the economy, but beekeepers are now beginning to rebuild their businesses.

Before the start of the Israel-Hamas war, the sector was based in agricultural lands near the perimeter of the strip, which today remains under the control of Israel's military. But beekeepers have returned to areas near the Yellow Line that divides the territory and found enough hives to restart honey production. Producers in Gaza City and parts of Jabalia near the line are now maintaining hives to try and provide some income for themselves and their families.

Yet they say their efforts are constrained by Israel's blockade on many items from entering the strip, including ones used for beekeeping.

“The bee sector is an important sector for sustainability, ecological balance and farming,” said Ibrahim al-Dabbeh, the head of the Cooperative Association of Beekeepers.

La agencia meteorológica nacional Météo-France advirtió sobre temperaturas cerca de los 40 grados Celsius (104 grados Fahrenheit) a partir del martes en el sureste de Francia. En Reino Unido se anunció una alerta sanitaria por calor de nivel ámbar para la mayor parte de Inglaterra a partir del martes, entre previsiones de que las temperaturas alcancen los 36 ºC (96,8 ºF) más adelante esta semana.

En toda Europa, el calor extremo comenzó en mayo y ha contribuido a grandes incendios forestales, una sequía prolongada y nuevos récords nacionales de temperatura, además de una estimación de miles de muertes relacionadas con el calor.

A nivel mundial, hasta ahora este es el tercer año más caluroso, por detrás de 2024 y 2025, según muestran las estadísticas climáticas. Pero 2026 aún tiene tiempo para alcanzarlos. Gracias al doble golpe del acelerado calentamiento global provocado por el ser humano y un El Niño sobredimensionado —un calentamiento periódico de partes del Pacífico que provoca variaciones de temperatura en todo el planeta—, aumenta la probabilidad de que para finales de año 2026 pueda convertirse en el año más caluroso jamás registrado, señalaron científicos.

El mes pasado registró la temperatura media de la superficie del mar más alta jamás medida para julio en los océanos extrapolares, es decir, los océanos libres de hielo marino estacional, según la agencia climática europea Copernicus.

Eso se vio impulsado en parte por el desarrollo de condiciones de El Niño en el Pacífico ecuatorial, indicó el servicio. El nuevo récord de promedio para julio es de 20,96 ºC (69,73 ºF), que superó el récord de 2023 de 20,89 ºC (69,60 ºF).

Pero la temperatura media del aire en superficie a nivel mundial el mes pasado fue de 16,90 ºC (62,42 ºF), lo que lo convierte apenas en el segundo julio más cálido registrado, empatado con julio de 2024, informó Copernicus.

En Europa Occidental, mientras tanto, el récord de temperatura media para el periodo junio-julio alcanzó los 21,62 ºC (70,92 ºF), indicó Copernicus, derribando el récord de 2022.

“Los persistentes sistemas de alta presión atraparon el calor sobre Europa occidental; las temperaturas extremas también intensificaron la sequía generalizada", indicó Samantha Burgess, responsable estratégica de clima en el Centro Europeo de Pronósticos Meteorológicos a Medio Plazo. "A medida que los suelos se secan, pierden su capacidad de proporcionar enfriamiento natural, lo que permite que el calor se acumule con mayor facilidad”.

“Este es un claro ejemplo de cómo el cambio climático está intensificando los extremos de calor, y de cómo el calor y la sequía se refuerzan cada vez más entre sí”.

Sólo en Francia, hubo alertas por ola de calor en mayo, algo sin precedentes documentados, cuando más de la mitad del país anotó nuevos máximos mensuales de temperatura. El calor se intensificó en junio, un periodo durante el cual se registraron al menos 5.700 muertes más de lo habitual, según la agencia de salud pública de Francia.

Météo-France indicó que el 23 de junio fue el día más caluroso jamás registrado en el país. Las temperaturas subieron hasta 44,3 ºC (111,7 ºF) en el suroeste.

En julio se registraron otros dos episodios de ola de calor, lo que agravó un incendio forestal histórico en el suroeste de Francia que obligó a 220.000 personas a huir de sus hogares en uno de los mayores esfuerzos de evacuación del continente desde la Segunda Guerra Mundial.

Las temperaturas fueron ligeramente más frescas el lunes en Reino Unido, pero el país se preparaba para su quinta ola de calor en un verano excepcionalmente caluroso y seco, que ha sumido en la sequía a la mitad de Inglaterra y toda Gales.

La alerta por calor advertía de probables impactos significativos en los servicios de salud, incluido un aumento de muertes entre las personas mayores y vulnerables.

Dos olas de calor que batieron récords en mayo y junio provocaron un exceso de mortalidad de más de 2.800 fallecidos vinculado a temperaturas extremas.

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Dazio informó desde Berlín. Sylvia Hui en Londres contribuyó a este despacho.

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In an “open letter to the football family” revealed on Monday, UEFA, CONCACAF and the AFC also said that “when trust is broken through deception, when an individual places himself above the collective that entrusted him with authority, that duty has been abandoned.”

UEFA runs soccer in Europe, CONCACAF does the same for North, Central America and the Caribbean, while the AFC governs the sport in Asia.

The letter was co-signed by UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin, AFC president Salman Bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa, CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani and three general secretaries.

“Football is the world’s greatest shared passion. It belongs to no individual and no institution. It belongs to the players, the fans, the clubs, the member associations and every institution entrusted with safeguarding its future,” the open letter said. “It is in that spirit, as confederations representing its members, that we speak collectively today.”

Infantino is facing a revolt after his failed plan to sell stakes in the World Cup to private equity investors.

“It is not the conduct of a custodian of the game, but of one who believes the game is answerable to him,” the letter said. “These are not the qualities football deserves in its leadership. That is why we have taken this stance: not lightly and not alone, but together, and out of duty to the game we serve.”

UEFA previously issued a threat to boycott the World Cup and other FIFA competitions despite the governing body abandoning and apologizing for its failed plan.

Norway’s soccer federation called for Infantino to step down, while the English Football Association has also withdrawn its support for Infantino’s re-election next March.

“Football’s strength has always been its unity. We call for that unity to be honoured now,” the letter said. “For leadership that serves football, not seeks to command it.”

Last Wednesday, FIFA said it had apologized for errors made over the failed plan but that senior staff at a crisis meeting in Morocco “reaffirmed their full support” for his presidency.

However, the nature of the meeting was also met with criticism.

“FIFA’s own letter also confirms that only one elected official was present at the leadership meeting in Morocco,” the open letter said. “No FIFA Council members or Member Associations were invited to participate. Only the management committee, composed of FIFA-employed senior staff, was present.”

FIFA was also urged to go further than just acknowledging mistakes were made.

“It treats this as a failure of communication, when what football witnessed was a failure of judgment,” the letter said. “There remains no recognition that attempting to sell an interest in the FIFA World Cup was a profound failure of judgment — not just a procedural misstep, but a fundamental breach of trust with the very institutions FIFA exists to serve.”

In a statement Saturday, FIFA defended Infantino against what it called a “concerted and ongoing effort” to undermine his leadership of the organization.

That statement followed a report by British newspaper The Daily Telegraph raising questions about an exit package paid by UEFA to a female staffer who worked with Infantino when he was general secretary of European soccer's ruling body.

UEFA confirmed that a “departure payment” was made to the employee and said it was “in line” with regulations at the time.

Infantino worked at UEFA for 16 years before being elected FIFA president.

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

Last year, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, ended its decades-long armed campaign against the Turkish state, declaring a decision to disarm and disband as part of the peace effort. The move came in response to a call from its imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan.

The PKK then staged a symbolic disarmament ceremony in northern Iraq, where it is based, and announced that it was withdrawing fighters from key locations in Turkey to Iraq.

Law could have regional implications

The measure, which is a step toward ending a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people, could have implications beyond Turkey's borders, leading to closer Turkish-Iraqi ties. It could also support the Syrian government's efforts to integrate areas that were under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, affiliated with the PKK.

It also offers Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan the opportunity to court the support of the pro-Kurdish DEM party to help him remain in office beyond the presidential two-term limit. Erdogan could run again if parliament calls an early election during his current term.

The 12-article draft legislation outlines the procedures for the disarmament of the group — which still retains the bulk of its weapons — and the rehabilitation of thousands of PKK members.

The legislation would suspend some prison sentences for convicted PKK members and postpone ongoing investigations and trials for five or 10 years, depending on the severity of the alleged offenses. If no terror-related crime is committed within the time frame, the cases would be dropped.

Militants convicted of intentional killings and those sentenced to life terms before 2005 are excluded from the bill’s provisions. This applies to Ocalan and other senior PKK figures.

The proposal also sets up ministerial and parliamentary committees to monitor the disarmament process. The measures would come into effect only after Turkey’s National Security Council confirms that the group has disbanded and surrendered all weapons.

Those wanting to benefit from the law would have six months to apply after the National Security Council’s decision is published in the official gazette.

Media reports have said exiled PKK members and those in Iraq and Syria are expected to benefit.

PKK says the legislation is a start but there are many things missing

The PKK-linked ANF news outlet carried a statement from the group in which it said that the Turkish legislation is a “beginning” to resolving the outstanding issues but has “serious shortcomings and deficiencies.” It called for Ocalan’s release from prison, saying that the peace process can move forward only if he “lives and works freely.”

It also said that the legislation failed to address demands for democratic reforms and Kurdish rights, adding that PKK fighters would not give up their weapons and return to Turkey “if, upon returning to Turkey, they are unable to engage in democratic politics on the basis of freedom of thought and freedom of association, and if they are prosecuted and imprisoned because of their views or the organizations they establish.”

“The people of Turkey, who have paid a heavy price for many years, now have an opportunity to consolidate peace and build democracy,” Gulistan Kilic Kocyigit, of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party, or DEM, told parliament.

“Of course, the proposal has shortcomings, and we now have a responsibility to address these shortcomings,” she added, in an apparent reference to demands for greater rights for Kurds and for democratic reforms.

Musavat Dervisoglu, the leader of the center-right nationalist Good Party, which opposes the bill, said it “would pave the way” for Erdogan to stay in power.

The measures were expected to easily pass with the votes of Erdogan's ruling party, its nationalist allies and DEM. Turkey's largest opposition party in parliament, New Party, also said it would vote in favor, despite the bill's shortfalls.

Ocalan's release is not in the cards, but conditions might improve

DEM has lobbied for Ocalan, who has been imprisoned since 1999, to be granted official status to coordinate the transition process, leading to his release.

The current proposal, however, makes no mention of Ocalan’s status or possible release.

Media reports have suggested however, that Ocalan’s conditions in his island prison off Istanbul will likely be improved, giving him broader visiting conditions and communication with the outside world.

The PKK has waged an armed insurgency since 1984 that has claimed tens of thousands of lives and spilled into Iraq and Syria. It has been designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

The group initially sought an independent Kurdish state but later shifted to demands for autonomy and expanded rights in Turkey.

Previous peace efforts between Turkey and the PKK have failed, most recently in 2015.

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Stella Martany contributed from Irbil, Iraq.

Varios ríos seguían por encima de los niveles de peligro, lo que aumenta el riesgo de nuevas inundaciones en zonas vulnerables, indicó la Autoridad Estatal de Gestión de Desastres de Assam. Días de intensas lluvias monzónicas han provocado que ríos, incluido el Brahmaputra, se desborden e inunden comunidades, además de interrumpir medios de vida y dañar infraestructura.

El río, uno de los más grandes de Asia, que nace en la región tibetana de China y recorre unos 900 kilómetros (560 millas) a través de Assam, inundó aldeas, arrasó viviendas y obligó a casi 300.000 personas a trasladarse a campamentos de ayuda administrados por el gobierno, señalaron funcionarios.

Las inundaciones, que comenzaron el mes pasado, desplazaron a más de 700.000 personas y sumergieron vastas extensiones de tierras agrícolas, además de dañar carreteras y otra infraestructura local. Aunque muchos residentes han empezado a regresar a sus hogares a medida que las aguas retroceden, al menos 49.000 habitantes afectados por las inundaciones siguen alojados en 125 campamentos de ayuda y centros de distribución de asistencia, según funcionarios.

Las autoridades continuaban con las labores de asistencia y monitoreo mientras evaluaban el alcance de los daños y las necesidades de las poblaciones afectadas.

Las inundaciones también causaron estragos entre el ganado, lo que asestó un golpe a las comunidades rurales y aumentó la preocupación por brotes de enfermedades. A medida que las aguas retrocedían en algunas zonas, muchas familias regresaron a viviendas cubiertas por gruesas capas de limo, lo que complicaba la recuperación.

Farukuddin Ahmed, un comerciante de 47 años de la localidad de Nazira, en el distrito de Sivasagar, el más afectado de Assam, dijo que las familias desplazadas estaban regresando despacio a casa, muchas para reconstruir en terrenos que aún estaban cubiertos por dos a tres pies (hasta un metro) de lodo.

Una aldea cercana, Nepali Khuti, tenía alrededor de 100 hogares antes de las inundaciones. “Sólo quedan unas pocas casas y el resto fue arrasado por las crecidas de la inundación”, dijo Ahmed.

“Los residentes, principalmente ganaderos lecheros, tienen que reconstruir sus vidas desde cero tras haber perdido todo su ganado”.

La ayuda en forma de lonas para techos y otros materiales de construcción estaba empezando a llegar, agregó.

"Hemos ordenado a los funcionarios que completen la evaluación de daños lo antes posible para que el gobierno pueda brindar asistencia financiera para su rehabilitación", indicó el ministro de Agricultura e Irrigación de Assam, Pijush Hazarika, tras una reunión de revisión. Agregó que a unas 50.000 personas afectadas ya se les pagó una compensación monetaria provisional.

La temporada anual de monzones suele provocar inundaciones en Assam, donde los ríos crecidos anegan grandes áreas y desplazan a miles de residentes cada año.

Expertos señalan que el cambio climático causado por el ser humano está intensificando los monzones del sur de Asia, que tradicionalmente se extienden de junio a septiembre y nuevamente de octubre a diciembre. Las lluvias, antes previsibles, ahora llegan en ráfagas erráticas que descargan cantidades extremas de agua en periodos cortos, seguidas de intervalos secos.

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NOTA DEL EDITOR: Se ha corregido este despacho para indicar que se pagó una compensación provisional a 50.000 personas, no a 500.000.

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

Twenty years ago, British driver Andy Green set the land speed record for a diesel-powered car, reaching 350.092 mph (563.4 kph) at Utah’s famous Bonneville Salt Flats. Green will return to the lunarlike landscape Tuesday and try to beat that mark, this time with a hydrogen-powered car.

The retired Royal Air Force fighter pilot aims not only to win another accolade but to showcase the power of hydrogen as a clean-energy alternative. It's the “fuel of the future,” Green told The Associated Press in a July interview.

Green will be driving the 32-foot (9.75-meter) JCB Hydromax, the brainchild of British construction equipment manufacturer JCB. The car is bright yellow, long and slim, resembling a pencil. It's powered by two hydrogen internal combustion engines with a combined 1,600 horsepower, which were adapted from engines used in the company’s construction machinery. They mix pressurized hydrogen gas with air and ignite it to create bursts of power.

In targeting the diesel-powered record, Green also hopes to easily clear the world land speed records for hydrogen internal combustion engines (185.5 mph/298.5 kph) and electric vehicles (341.3 mph/549.2 kph).

Green hit a new top speed of 368.347 mph (592.797 kph) in practice last week, but to officially earn the hydrogen record, he’ll have to do it Tuesday in front of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, the international governing body of motor sports.

“What the peak speed is, I can’t say. We just don’t know,” he said. “Part of the adventure here is we’re going to find out.”

One thing Tuesday’s attempt will assuredly not do is approach the supersonic speeds Green reached with jet power three decades ago.

Green had already been flying supersonic military aircraft when he spotted a newspaper ad that read: “Wanted: High-speed driver to break the sound barrier,” according to the Guinness World Records. In 1997, he traveled faster than the speed of sound and set the outright land speed record — 763.035 mph (1,227.98 kph) — in a car powered by twin jet engines. His runs in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert produced sonic booms that shook the nearby town of Gerlach.

Now 64 years old, Green said he thought he was done racing but came out of retirement when JCB approached him with plans for the new car. The company has invested more than $134 million into hydrogen-powered engines that it says emit no carbon dioxide from the tailpipes.

“If you’re serious about emissions, you have to be serious about hydrogen, and a land speed project is the perfect way to prove it,” JCB Chair Anthony Bamford said at the car's unveiling in May. Bamford has also argued that hydrogen can better handle the demands of heavy industries than electric power.

But hydrogen is only as clean as its source, and the vast majority is currently produced from fossil fuels. JCB signed a deal to buy green hydrogen, which is created using renewable energy but makes up a tiny fraction of global hydrogen production.

Hydrogen combustion engines also present unique safety challenges due to the high pressure and flammability of the gas.

“We're managing the risks very carefully,” Green said. The car endured rigorous testing, and Green said he spent months learning how it responds to the elements, how the engines work in tandem and how to deploy a parachute to slow the car on the low-friction salt crust.

Since the first race there in 1914, the glassy surface of the Bonneville Salt Flats has drawn generations of drivers seeking to set new land speed records. A remnant of a prehistoric lake bed, the salt flats are about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of Salt Lake City and sit atop an aquifer that cools the tires of the cars.

Spectators must stand about a quarter of a mile (400 meters) from the course's straightaway, which is 10 miles (16 kilometers) long, and often watch through wide-angle binoculars.

The expanse on the border of Utah and Nevada has also been a backdrop for movies including “Independence Day” and “The World’s Fastest Indian,” and the series finale of “Mad Men.”

Green will start about an hour before sunrise Tuesday. His attempt comes a year after a driver going 283 mph (455 kph) died trying to set a land speed record at Bonneville's annual Speed Week. Chris Raschke lost control of his rocketlike vehicle called the Speed Demon last August and died from his injuries.

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Rico reported from Atlanta. Video journalist Serge Cartwright contributed reporting.

The Ukrainian military said it hit an oil refinery in Nizhnekamsk, which is about 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) east of the Ukrainian border and has a population of about 240,000.

Russian officials didn't say what the drones targeted, but the city is home to two refineries and a petrochemical plant. Ukraine has targeted Russian oil facilities with long-range drones almost daily in recent months. The campaign has caused fuel shortages in Russia, eaten into its refining capacity and unsettled the population.

Also on Monday, several Ukrainian drones sparked a fire at an industrial facility in the Tyumen region of western Siberia, said Gov. Alexander Moor, without offering any details. Last month, Ukrainian drones hit a refinery in Tyumen, more than 2,400 kilometers (about 1,500 miles) east of the border with Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his country is trying to force Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table and stop his full-scale invasion, launched in 2022. Russia is one of the world’s biggest energy producers.

Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces struck a Taneco oil refinery in Nizhnekamsk, starting a fire.

The city came under a “massive” drone attack targeting industrial and civilian facilities, according to the press service of Tatarstan’s head, Rustam Minnikhanov. No further details were released.

A child was among the 13 people killed, along with the 75 injured, his press service said, adding that Monday was declared a day of mourning in Tatarstan.

It was not possible to independently verify either side’s claims.

Repairing the refineries is complicated for Russia. Ukraine’s attacks have damaged specialized equipment that is often imported, making repairs time-consuming and expensive as workarounds or replacements are sought by evading international sanctions.

Russia has also regularly battered Ukraine from the air using missiles, powerful glide bombs and drones, hitting civilian areas and causing thousands of civilian casualties, according to the United Nations. In the first six months of this year, 1,396 civilians were killed and 7,978 injured in Ukraine, the U.N. office in Kyiv said last week. That was a 37% increase from the same period last year, it said.

The World Health Organization’s European office said Monday that one of its warehouses in the central Dnipro region of Ukraine was hit twice in less than 24 hours. The attacks destroyed emergency supplies worth an estimated $500,000 that were intended for front-line health facilities, it said in a statement. No casualties were reported.

Ukraine's drones have struck deeper inside Russia

Ukraine’s domestically developed long-range drones have flown increasing distances deep inside Russia, with some now reaching Siberia, around 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) from the border.

“We do deliver entirely justified responses, and every Russian strike will be met with our response. Russia’s war will be felt more and more at their own home -– in Russia,” Zelenskyy said late Sunday on social media.

“The only reason this is still continuing is Russia’s unwillingness to end this war.”

As part of a parallel campaign to disrupt Russian military supply lines leading to the front line in eastern and southern Ukraine, Kyiv's forces struck road, rail and pontoon bridges in six regions last month, the Defense Ministry said Monday.

By repeatedly striking routes for fuel, ammunition and reinforcements, Ukrainian commanders say they have made Russian logistics slower, costlier and hard to organize. That has helped stall Russian advances and enabled Ukrainian counterattacks, they say.

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

El incendio más grande arde en el Parque Nacional Bromo Tengger Semeru, en la provincia de Java Oriental, donde unas 743 hectáreas (1.836 acres) han quedado calcinadas, según las autoridades regionales.

El clima seco y el fortalecimiento de las condiciones de El Niño elevaron el riesgo de más incendios forestales y de tierras durante el pico de la temporada seca, indicó el Ministerio de Silvicultura de Indonesia en un comunicado el domingo.

El ministerio indicó que el fuego ha quemado grandes extensiones de pastizales secos, vegetación y flores protegidas de edelweiss, ya que las llamas se han extendido hasta la zona de Penanjakan, un mirador popular para los turistas que visitan el monte Bromo, una de las atracciones más conocidas de Indonesia. No se han reportado heridos ni evacuaciones.

Cientos de bomberos, soldados, agentes de policía, guardaparques y voluntarios trabajaron para contener el incendio. Las autoridades han cerrado el parque a los visitantes hasta nuevo aviso.

Hasta el lunes, se habían desplegado al menos tres helicópteros para arrojar agua sobre puntos calientes a los que es difícil llegar por tierra. Los equipos en tierra realizaban labores manuales de extinción, operaciones de enfriamiento, patrullajes y la construcción de cortafuegos para evitar que las llamas se propaguen aún más.

“Seguimos coordinando esfuerzos para abordar y anticipar los incendios forestales y de tierras”, dijo el ministro de Silvicultura, Raja Juli Antoni, durante una visita al parque el domingo. Instó al público a evitar actividades que puedan provocar nuevos incendios, como arrojar colillas de cigarrillos y emplear fuego para despejar terreno.

Se han reportado otros incendios forestales en Indonesia durante una temporada inusualmente seca.

Más de 50 hectáreas (124 acres) de turberas se han quemado en la provincia de Jambi, en la isla de Sumatra, lo que ha provocado una neblina asfixiante en algunas zonas y ha aumentado la preocupación por un deterioro de la calidad del aire. El mayor incendio se ha reportado en la aldea de Sungai Gelam, en el distrito de Muaro Jambi, donde decenas de hectáreas de plantaciones de palma aceitera propiedad de residentes locales han sido destruidas. El incendio arde desde el miércoles.

Unos 300 bomberos y personal de emergencias han sido desplegados para combatir el fuego. Funcionarios señalaron que el suelo profundo de turba, el suministro limitado de agua, el acceso difícil y los fuertes vientos han complicado los esfuerzos, incluso con tres helicópteros realizando operaciones aéreas de extinción.

La Agencia de Meteorología, Climatología y Geofísica de Indonesia indicó que se espera que agosto y septiembre sean los meses más críticos, ya que la vegetación seca y los fuertes vientos crean condiciones favorables para que los incendios se propaguen rápidamente.

Los incendios forestales en las islas de Sumatra y Borneo son frecuentes durante periodos secos. A menudo, los incendios son iniciados ilegalmente por propietarios de plantaciones o agricultores tradicionales para despejar tierras para la siembra, unas quemas que cubren periódicamente partes del Sudeste Asiático con una neblina peligrosa.

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

The S&P 500 slipped 0.1%, coming off its record set on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 85 points, or 0.2%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.2% lower.

Momentum is slowing for stocks following a rally bolstered by reports showing profits soared during the spring for big U.S. companies. Earnings per share for companies in the S&P 500 are on track to be 50% higher from a year earlier, according to FactSet. That would be the best growth since five years ago, when the economy was roaring out of the chasm created by COVID.

Berkshire Hathaway is one of the latest companies to deliver a stronger profit for the last quarter than analysts expected, and the company built by legendary investor Warren Buffett said over the weekend that it’s also invested some of its massive pile of cash into stocks under its new CEO, Greg Abel.

Berkshire has been famous for buying stocks at what it considers low prices, and criticism has been high that U.S. stocks generally look too expensive. But when they report strong profits, it helps them look less pricey.

Berkshire Hathaway’s stock rose 2.1%.

Intel weighed on the market and fell 4% after saying it may sell $15 billion of its stock. Such a move would dilute the ownership stakes of existing investors, and Intel said it would likely use the cash for investments to take advantage of the huge spending underway on artificial-intelligence technology.

On the winning side of Wall Street were companies boosted by buyouts.

MarineMax jumped 45.6% after the retailer, marina operator and superyacht services provider said it agreed to sell itself for about $1.5 billion in cash to a portfolio company of Blackstone.

Varex Imaging leaped 48.2% after Teledyne Technologies said it would buy the maker of X-ray imaging components for $18.90 per share in cash.

In the oil market, the price for a barrel of Brent crude rose 2% to $85.23. It had swung between $72 and $102 last month as hopes rose and fell that the United States and Iran could reach an agreement that would allow oil tankers to freely exit the Middle East again to deliver crude worldwide.

But hopes are turning toward caution again, and the price of Brent is back to where it was earlier this month, as well as in mid-July, mid-June and in the first week of the war in March.

Higher oil prices push inflation upward, and the main event for Wall Street this week will likely be Wednesday’s update on how bad inflation was last month. Economists expect it to show inflation slowed to 3.4% from 3.5% in June.

A slowdown would mean less pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates. Higher rates would help keep a lid on inflation, but they would also slow the economy by making it more expensive for U.S. households and companies to borrow. They would also undercut prices for stocks and other investments.

A report on Friday showing unexpectedly weak hiring across the United States lowered Wall Street’s expectations for an upcoming cut to interest rates. But traders still see a 46% chance the Fed will raise its main interest rate at its next meeting in September, according to data from CME Group.

The yield on the 10-yer Treasury rose to 4.67% from 4.65% late Friday.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe after rising in much of Asia. Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 2.1% for one of the world’s biggest moves.

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AP Business Writers Michelle Chapman and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.

Scores of firefighters, backed by 43 helicopters, have been deployed to battle wildfires that have burned more than 107,000 hectares (264,000 acres) of forests and other land across the Southeast Asian nation as of Monday, Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Djamari Chaniago said.

East Java authorities said the largest blaze is burning in Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park in East Java province, where about 743 hectares (1,836 acres) have been scorched. Authorities have closed the park to visitors until further notice.

It said the fire has burned large areas of dry grassland, vegetation and protected edelweiss flowers as flames have spread to the Penanjakan area, a popular viewpoint for tourists visiting Mount Bromo, one of Indonesia’s best-known attractions. No injuries or evacuations have been reported.

Chaniago said weather-modification, or cloud-seeding, operations are considered one of the most effective ways to help firefighters combat wildfires by inducing rainfall through the dispersal of salt particles into suitable clouds. Strengthening El Nino conditions have raised the risk of more forest and land fires during the peak dry season.

However, the effort would be difficult to carry out because scientific monitoring “found no rain-bearing clouds suitable for weather-modification operations through Aug. 18,” Chaniago told a news conference Monday. He spoke after a meeting with related ministers and agency chiefs dealing with wildfires in the capital, Jakarta.

With cloud-seeding ruled out because of unfavorable weather conditions, "we are relying solely on water bombing and ground firefighting teams,” said Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni while visiting Mount Bromo on Sunday. He urged the public to avoid activities that could spark new blazes, including discarding cigarette butts and clearing land by burning.

Wildfires have been reported in several of Indonesia’s most fire-prone regions, including the provinces of Riau, Jambi and South Sumatra on Sumatra island, and Central Kalimantan and South Kalimantan on Borneo island, Chaniago said.

In Jambi, more than 50 hectares (124 acres) of peatland have burned, causing choking haze in some areas and raising concerns about worsening air quality. The largest fire has been reported in the village of Sungai Gelam in the Muaro Jambi district, where dozens of hectares of palm oil plantations owned by local residents have been destroyed. The blaze has burned since Wednesday.

About 300 firefighters and disaster personnel have been deployed to battle the fire. Officials said deep peat soil, limited water supplies, difficult access and strong winds have complicated efforts, even with three helicopters conducting aerial firefighting operations.

Forest and peat fires are an annual problem in Indonesia that strain relations with neighboring countries.

Malaysia has reported unhealthy air-quality levels in parts of Sarawak state on Borneo island, with officials saying winds were carrying smoke from hot spots in neighboring areas. In Singapore, authorities have warned that prevailing southeasterly winds could carry smoke toward the city-state, with dry conditions expected to prevail.

“We must uphold the nation’s credibility by showing that we can bring these fires under control,” Chaniago said.

Indonesia’s Meteorological, Climatological and Geophysical Agency said August and September are expected to be the most critical months as dry vegetation and strong winds create favorable conditions for fires to spread rapidly.

Wildfires in Indonesia, an archipelago nation of more than 17,000 islands, are often started illegally by plantation owners or traditional farmers to clear land for planting.

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Karmini reported from Jakarta. Associated Press writers Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Indonesia and Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed to this report.

Maj. Robert “Magyar” Brovdi, one of Ukraine’s most prominent commanders among a new generation of soldiers, said his forces could strike seven times more military targets in Crimea if the money pledged by Western allies came faster.

“Crimea falls within the key conceptual pillars on the path to ending the war,” Brovdi told The Associated Press in an interview.

Despite that shortfall, Ukraine’s summer campaign in Crimea has already inflicted significant damage: striking rail bridges, oil depots and power infrastructure to disrupt supply lines and blind Russian air defenses as drones fly in.

Brovdi said his forces are equipped at just 14% of what they would need to carry out the Crimea campaign at full capacity.

A firm believer in numbers since his past life running an international grain trading business, Brovdi joined Ukraine’s territorial defense as a volunteer in the war’s opening days. He rose quickly, commanding one of the country’s most effective drone brigades before being tapped to lead a force with no precedent before this war — Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces.

“It’s not that the production capacity of Ukrainian manufacturers doesn’t allow us to make the necessary quantities” of drones, Brovdi said. “It’s the banal problem of untimely financing, which our partners do allocate, but which moves significantly slower than our plans.”

A lover of the arts

A devoted patron of the arts, Brovdi's underground command post resembles a museum, with pieces of Ukrainian art on display, including by renowned painter Maria Prymachenko — each with small placards noting their titles and a QR code linking to more information. “Please don’t touch the sculpture,” reads a sign beneath one piece.

The artwork sits against a backdrop of dozens of screens streaming live footage from the front, along with real-time data that drives decisions on the battlefield. Soldiers can grab good coffee, pick a book, work out or rest in sleeping pods — a culture that feels closer to a Silicon Valley office than a war room.

They work around the clock to try to prevent Crimea from functioning as a staging ground for the Russian military, said Brovdi, whose call sign, Magyar, nods to his ethnic Hungarian roots in Zakarpattia, the western Ukrainian region bordering Hungary.

He pointed to one sign of progress — in four recent large-scale Russian missile barrages from the peninsula, only five missiles were launched in total, a drop he credited to the systematic destruction of Russian air defenses there. The AP couldn’t independently verify the claim.

To open that “window” for drones to strike the peninsula without being shot down en masse, his forces destroyed more than 300 air defense assets over recent months — surface-to-air systems, radar stations, electronic warfare equipment.

The window metaphor sends him into a sidetrack about something personal — he loves sleeping with one open, a pleasure he rarely gets anymore as one of Russia’s most hunted men, who spends most of his time in underground bunkers.

Forcing Russia out of Crimea

Much of Russia's Soviet-era air defense hardware runs on the power grid, which is one of the reasons Crimea's electrical infrastructure has become a recurring target. Russian soldiers become “blind,” left with just machine guns and rifles, he said. The tactic has also impacted access to power for civilians, and Brovdi said he has twice publicly apologized to Ukrainians living in Crimea for the disruptions.

Wherever Starlink connectivity reaches across Crimea, his forces can now destroy even the most heavily defended target using an average of just three drones, mixing munitions with different characteristics and warheads depending on what’s being hit. He described the strikes as deliberately calibrated — different munitions for a bridge pier than for a fuel truck or a moving train — and said his forces avoid hitting civilian infrastructure.

“Creating conditions that make it impossible for any kind of military capability … to remain there will make Crimea uninteresting ... as a military staging ground,” he said.

Ukraine is also working to dismantle Crimea’s role as a naval base — a blow to Russia’s presence near NATO’s borders, he added.

The campaign’s early results have not been made public, Brovdi said. But roughly two weeks into the offensive that began in late June, he said Ukrainian intelligence indicated Russian authorities had ordered all military commands and security services to relocate off the peninsula, along with a covert order to remove secret archives and artworks. The AP could not independently verify the account.

Threats from Russia

Meanwhile, Russia is working to counter Ukraine’s edge. It is installing jamming systems at a scale that will, to some degree, degrade Starlink connectivity, Brovdi said.

Russia is also building its own satellite communications system to rival Starlink, he said. “This is a risk for the entire planet,” Brovdi said, “because a dictatorship will gain access to information across the whole globe.”

He also pointed to other threats facing Ukraine. The concentration of jet-powered Shahed drones, which are much harder for Ukraine to shoot down, has increased two and a half times in recent weeks, he said.

Russia's military can currently fire a simultaneous salvo of 77 ballistic and cruise missiles, he said, and plans to increase that to 200. That is one of Ukraine’s most vulnerable points, since the country is running short of interceptors for the U.S.-made Patriot — the only system Ukraine has in its arsenal against ballistic missiles — meaning dozens fired by Russia during mass barrages get through and hit their targets.

“Even if they only manage half of that, it will all be flying at us,” Brovdi said. The only way to bring the number down, he said, is by striking every facility involved in producing those missiles — underscoring the importance of Ukraine’s long-range strikes deep inside Russian territory.

Ukraine's plan for Russia's Wildberries

Ukraine has increasingly targeted Wildberries, Russia’s largest online marketplace sometimes described as the country’s answer to Amazon, and Brovdi named it as a target.

“Wildberries is, first of all, a supply platform — it’s the war’s quartermaster,” he said, noting the company runs a dedicated section selling goods for Russia’s military.

The Kremlin has denied the site supplies the Russian military and has accused Ukraine of striking civilian targets. Russia regularly attacks Ukrainian logistics and retail facilities.

At the same time, Brovdi said, the strikes on Wildberries are meant to make ordinary Russians feel the war directly, in hopes the resulting desire to end it could weigh on Russia’s ability to keep fighting.

Brovdi declined to give a timeline for the Wildberries campaign, saying only that the strikes will continue “until it becomes impossible for it to recover quickly.”

“Ultimately, Wildberries is, forgive the expression, a consumer gambling addiction,” he said, arguing that losing access to it — like restrictions on social media — creates an intrusion on one's personal life that most Russians feel.

“It turned out to be a sensitive sensor of the comfort of Russia’s massive population — people who consider themselves completely untouched by the actions of the aggressor country,” he said.

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This story was updated to clarify that Russia can fire salvos of both cruise and ballistic missiles. An earlier version mentioned only ballistic missiles.

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AP reporters Vasilisa Stepanenko in eastern Ukraine and Volodymyr Yurchuk in Kyiv contributed.

In a letter sent Sunday evening to the Department of Homeland Security, the Defense Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Democrats said they will investigate whether the Pentagon and DHS are coordinating to deport military service members and their families.

“These efforts imperil military readiness, weaken service members’ morale, and betray America’s promises to the people who put their lives on the line for our nation,” according to the letter, which was signed by more than 60 lawmakers and provided to the AP.

The Pentagon declined to comment, stating it would “reply directly to the authors of the letter.”

DHS told the AP that it values service members' contributions and “U.S. military service alone does not automatically grant lawful immigration status, or exempt aliens from the consequences of violating U.S. immigration laws.”

The VA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In their letter, the Democrats provided an extensive list of questions to the agencies. They said the apparent collaboration between DHS and the military to deport troops’ families “raises both ethical and legal concerns.”

“Donald Trump is breaking our country’s promises to service members by tearing apart dozens of military families who were promised immigration protections,” Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said. “That’s just plain cruel, and it’s hurting our military readiness and morale.”

Warren's office is leading the probe alongside Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth and several House Democrats.

The AP investigation found President Donald Trump's administration has rolled back protections for military families and departed from longstanding bipartisan consensus to carry out its mass deportation agenda. Service members have been forced to take leave of their duties, including delaying deployment, to care for their children after their spouses were detained.

The lawmakers pressed the administration on why military recruiters are still promoting immigration protections.

Citing the AP's reporting, the lawmakers urged the Trump administration to restore policies that had previously shielded military service members' families from immigration enforcement while allowing them to adjust their legal status.

“This report is appalling and shows the unbelievable cruelty at the center of the Trump immigration agenda,” said Blumenthal, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs. “We will be demanding answers and accountability.”

The Republican chairs of the armed services and veterans’ affairs committees, Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker and Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran, did not respond to requests for comment.

Last week, Trump established the Military Spouse Commission, chaired by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s wife, Jennifer Rauchet, to develop policies and recommendations for improving life for troops' spouses.

“Military spouses are intrinsically linked to the good order, readiness, and retention of our military,” Trump stated in a letter published in the Federal Register on Aug. 6. “Their support and contributions to our Armed Forces are crucial to mission success.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

The Defense Department said in a December letter to Democratic lawmakers, obtained by the AP, that it had not implemented any recent policy changes for noncitizen family members in the military and has not conducted analysis on how deportations impact troop readiness and morale.

Danitza James, president of Repatriate Our Patriots, an organization providing support to military families and veterans facing deportation, said troops are being betrayed.

“Our military service members are the ones that sign on the dotted line to go and defend our country and maybe not come back,” James said. “They trust our government to take care of their families, and they’re not doing that.”

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Brook 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.

“It’s always been fascinating to me to see the origins of things,” Dersch said. “It’s a fun challenge to debug and repair. You can understand the entire system from top to bottom.”

Dersch is part of a growing community of vintage computer collectors who are preserving the classic machines that helped launch the digital revolution. While Silicon Valley has since moved on to shaping the future of artificial intelligence, these hardware enthusiasts are intent on saving the Atari, Commodore and IBM machines that are ancestors to today’s laptops, wearable devices and smart phones.

Where others see junk, people like Dersch see artifacts of computer history that are worthy of attention and respect. They delight in hearing the beeps and chimes of their childhood and firing up a low-def game of “Pong” or “Space Invaders.”

“The enthusiasm for the history of computers and all the stuff around it is growing,” said Erik Klein, president of the Vintage Computer Federation, which organizes an annual festival at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View in the heart of Silicon Valley.

Vintage computer festivals bring collectors together

This year more than 3,500 people attended the two-day Vintage Computer Festival in early August that celebrated the 50th anniversary of Apple, founded in 1976 in nearby Cupertino, Calif. It featured a panel with co-founders Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne reminiscing about the company’s early days as a scrappy startup led by the late Steve Jobs.

More than a dozen such gatherings have since sprung up in cities across North America, South America and Europe.

Growing interest is reflected in more demand for vintage computers in online marketplaces, Klein said. Rare, iconic computers like the Apple-1 — the company’s first product — can fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Collectors exhibited the computer systems that they have painstakingly restored to their original working condition, allowing attendees to play with the computers built long before the internet, social media and AI transformed the world.

Restoring the ‘grandfather of the modern computer’

Dersch drove down from Seattle to showcase the pride of his collection: the Xerox Alto. He spent years restoring what's considered “the grandfather of the modern computer,” which was developed at the pioneering Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in the 1970s.

The Alto was one of the earliest computers to move beyond text on screen and use the mouse and graphical user interface — such as windows, icons and cursors — that became the industry standard. The model famously inspired Jobs and Bill Gates to incorporate the technologies in their early products.

Dersch’s exhibit featured a fully functioning Xerox Alto workstation with its boxy vertical monitor, chunky keyboard and mouse, as well as pizza-sized spinning disks that store tiny amounts of data by modern standards.

“It’s fun to share what I’ve done with people. It’s fun to share in what other people have done,” Dersch said. “Also, there’s a consignment area where I can buy more junk to take home with me, so that’s always fun.”

Klein, a Silicon Valley software engineering manager, was a passionate collector until his hobby overwhelmed his home and family life. He had as many as 150 computer systems — complete with accessories, documents and packaging — crammed into his closets and garage.

He said his beloved collection had become an “albatross” and he worried about burdening his family. So he started selling and giving away his machines until he only had a few favorites left at home.

Similar events for collectors spread around the world

Now Klein channels his passion for vintage computers into organizing festivals, repair workshops, swap meets and other events as president of the Vintage Computer Federation.

“So it’s really about evangelizing that history and evangelizing this hobby of maintaining, collecting and enjoying this vintage technology,” Klein said.

Sellam Ismail is thrilled to see the collector community develop and mature since he organized the first festival in 1997, drawing about 150 hobbyists to a venue east of San Francisco. He ran the events for a decade.

He later co-founded the Vintage Computer Federation, which runs festivals in the US and Canada. He’s helped other groups launch similar festivals in Argentina, Germany and Switzerland.

“The community grew up. More and more people started getting old computers, started collecting them,” said Ismail, who once had a massive collection he stored in a warehouse. “Next year is the 30th anniversary. And I expect this to continue and grow even bigger.”

The primaries come a week after Abdul El-Sayed narrowly defeated Rep. Haley Stevens in Michigan’s divisive and costly U.S. Senate primary. El-Sayed's victory has energized the left while stoking fears among Democratic Party leaders that the shift to the left, particularly in battleground states like Michigan and Wisconsin, will make it more difficult to win in November.

Wisconsin's chaotic primary pits progressive against governor's pick

In Wisconsin, democratic socialist Francesca Hong is trying to win a four-way Democratic primary for governor where her top opponent has been endorsed by popular Gov. Tony Evers, who isn't seeking a third term.

Evers got behind Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley on July 18, the same day Crowley reentered the race after dropping out 10 days earlier. Crowley rejoined after the candidate he backed, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, ended her candidacy amid a campaign finance scandal.

Evers and Crowley were crisscrossing the state together in the last days before final ballots are cast Tuesday.

Evers and more establishment Democrats were hoping to finally coalesce around Crowley in the final days of the chaotic primary that saw two other candidates drop out, most notably former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes on July 29.

Barnes and Rodriguez, who were both seen as potential front-runners, remain on the ballot and absentee votes already cast for them can’t be undone.

Republicans are spending to influence the Democratic primary

Republicans are putting money behind Hong, thinking she will be the better matchup for Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany in November. The Republican Governors Association has spent nearly $3.6 million through its Right Direction Wisconsin PAC on ads contrasting Hong with President Donald Trump and playing up her liberal policies.

Crowley and other Democrats argue the ads are meant to bolster Hong's standing in the primary because Republicans see her as the easier opponent.

Evers projected confidence at a rally that attracted hundreds of people in Hong’s hometown of Madison on Sunday night, saying Crowley was the best chance Democrats had to defeat Tiffany.

“We’re going to win this thing,” Evers said, telling the Crowley supporters that Tiffany would be “the worst governor in the history of Wisconsin.”

“If Tom Tiffany wins in November that will be like electing Donald Trump as governor of the state of Wisconsin,” he said.

Crowley urged Democrats to come together after the primary to beat Tiffany.

“Our ultimate goal is to make sure we don’t have a MAGA extremist occupying the governor’s office,” Crowley said.

Tiffany, one of the most conservative members of Congress, is endorsed by Trump.

The president called Hong a communist in remarks on Wednesday, where he mentioned a 2020 social media post by Hong calling for Thanksgiving to be canceled. Asked about the post this week, Hong reversed herself and said that Thanksgiving was her favorite holiday.

Trump won Wisconsin in 2016 and 2024, and Republicans have held majorities in both chambers of the Legislature since 2011. Holding onto the governor's office is key to Wisconsin Democrats' effort to gain full control of state government for the first time in 16 years.

In the race to replace Tiffany, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy's son-in-law Michael Alfonso is in a five-person Republican primary. Alfonso, who is trying to represent Duffy's old congressional district, has Trump's endorsement.

Minnesota primary comes in wake of immigration enforcement surge

In neighboring Minnesota, voters are choosing between moderate U.S. Rep. Angie Craig and progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan in a Democratic U.S. Senate primary that’s playing out in the aftermath of Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement surge in the state.

The race has been shaped by the killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis, confrontations that were caught on camera and fueled a backlash to Trump’s immigration policies.

Both Craig and Flanagan spent the weekend traversing the Twin Cities metro area.

In a driveway in suburban Eagan on Sunday, Craig spoke to the angst among Democratic primary voters who feel that Washington isn’t working for them. Members of Congress need to stop trading stocks and becoming lobbyists when they leave office, she said, and the U.S. needs to restrict the flood of corporate campaign spending.

“But the only way we pass any of the progressive policies that all of us here support is by winning elections and taking damn majorities,” she said.

Unlike in Wisconsin, where the incumbent governor has endorsed a candidate in the race to succeed him, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has not gotten involved in the Senate primary. But his wife, Gwen Walz, has endorsed Craig and campaigned with her on Sunday.

Flanagan campaigned Saturday with U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, who helped her make the case that Washington needs a shake-up to root out the deep-pocketed forces propping up a broken status quo.

“It is big corporations, it’s special interests who are putting their thumb on the scale in our elections across the country,” Flanagan said. “And it’s not just Republicans. It’s Democrats, too.”

The race has been one of the most expensive Minnesota has seen, with millions of dollars backing both candidates, but disproportionately falling in Craig’s favor.

Whoever wins the primary will be the front-runner to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Tina Smith in November. Minnesota voters haven’t elected a Republican to a statewide office since 2006.

Mike Lindell, the founder of MyPillow, is a top Republican candidate in the governor's race. He's endorsed by Trump, and he was a prominent promoter of falsehoods about election fraud. U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar is in a six-person primary on the Democratic side.

Democratic struggles also on display in other states' primaries Tuesday

Two veteran Democratic incumbents in Connecticut face challenges from the left.

Moderate Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont is running for a third term but faces progressive state Rep. Josh Elliott. The Democratic nominee will face Republican state Sen. Ryan Fazio in November.

Longtime Democratic U.S. Rep. John Larson, 78, is running for a 15th term and his age and health have been major issues in the four-person race.

Former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin narrowly won the party's endorsement at its state convention in May. Other candidates are Hartford Board of Education member Ruth Fortune and state Rep. Jillian Gilchrest.

In Vermont, two Democrats are running in for a chance to take on Republican Gov. Phil Scott.

Former child advocacy organization CEO Aly Richards boasts endorsements from former Democratic Govs. Howard Dean and Madeleine Kunin. She faces economist Amanda Janoo.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

Alias “Ruso” o “Alemán”, jefe principal de la “Estructura 28”, murió durante una operación en una zona rural del departamento del Meta, en el centro de Colombia, declaró De la Espriella en un video difundido en redes sociales.

El mandatario aseguró que se trata de un “importante golpe” por tratarse de un experto en explosivos y responsable de ejecutar acciones contra otras disidencias rivales con las que disputa territorio para sus actividades ilícitas.

Dicha facción es parte de la estructura ilegal que se encuentra bajo el mando de alias “Iván Mordisco”, uno de los hombres los más buscados de Colombia, a quien De la Espriella le exigió entregarse a la justicia o afrontar las consecuencias.

El mandatario dio a conocer la noticia dos días después de asumir el cargo y menos de 24 horas después de concluir con una jornada de violencia en el país, la cual incluyó un ataque con explosivos que destruyó una caseta de cobro en una concurrida carretera del suroeste del país y dejó a dos soldados con heridas menores.

En otro operativo militar en el departamento de Antioquia, en el noroeste colombiano, el ejército abatió el domingo a dos miembros de una facción del Clan del Golfo señalada por el asesinato de cuatro soldados en 2024, aseveró el presidente. Otros cuatro integrantes fueron detenidos.

“No habrá tregua para los bandidos y los vamos a cazar”, afirmó De la Espriella.

El mandatario de inclinación conservadora anunció que, como parte de su estrategia de seguridad, aplicará una mayor presión militar para combatir al crimen organizado, un cambio drástico en comparación con la política de su antecesor Gustavo Petro, quien apostó por los polémicos diálogos de paz.

El calor extremo comenzó en mayo y ha contribuido al surgimiento de grandes incendios forestales, una prolongada sequía y nuevos récords nacionales de altas temperaturas en toda la región, además de miles de muertes previstas relacionadas con el calor.

Las estadísticas climáticas muestran que, a nivel mundial, este es el tercer año más caluroso a la fecha, por detrás de 2024 y 2025. Pero 2026 aún tiene tiempo para alcanzarlos.

Gracias al doble impacto del calentamiento global acelerado gracias a la actividad humana y a un fenómeno de El Niño —un calentamiento periódico de partes del Pacífico que provoca variaciones de temperatura en todo el planeta— de grandes proporciones, existe cada vez mayor probabilidad de que 2026 pueda convertirse en el año más caluroso del que se tenga registro, superando a 2024, señalaron los científicos.

Copernicus indicó que el mes pasado se registró la temperatura promedio más elevada para un mes de julio en la superficie del mar en los océanos libres de hielo marino estacional.

Esto se vio impulsado en parte por el desarrollo de condiciones de El Niño en el Pacífico ecuatorial, explicó el servicio. El nuevo récord de promedio para julio es de 20,96 grados Celsius (69,73 grados Fahrenheit), superando el récord de 2023 de 20,89 C (69,60 F).

Pero la temperatura media del aire en superficie a nivel mundial fue de 16,90°C (62,42 F) el mes pasado, convirtiéndose en el segundo julio más caluroso en los registros, empatado con julio de 2024, indicó Copernicus.

En Europa occidental, por su parte, el récord de temperatura media para el periodo junio-julio alcanzó los 21,62°C (70,92 F), señaló Copernicus.

“Los persistentes sistemas de alta presión atraparon el calor sobre Europa occidental; las temperaturas extremas también amplificaron la sequía generalizada. A medida que el suelo se secan, pierde su capacidad de proporcionar enfriamiento natural, permitiendo que el calor se acumule con mayor facilidad”, destacó Samantha Burgess, responsable estratégica de clima en el Centro Europeo de Pronósticos Meteorológicos a Medio Plazo.

“Este es un claro ejemplo de cómo el cambio climático está intensificando los extremos de calor, y de cómo el calor y la sequía se refuerzan cada vez más entre sí”, añadió.

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

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It was around 1:15 a.m. Sunday when Hollywood police officers responded to the 5300 block of Plunkett Street.

According to police, arriving officers found two victims at the scene.

Officials said both victims were rushed a nearby hospital.

Police said they apprehended the suspect, later identified as 38-year-old Cameron Alexander, after establishing a perimeter.

Local 10 News’ cameras observed what appeared to be a bullet and blood on the ground.

Detectives were seen taking pictures overnight and into the morning and crime scene tape closed off a portion of Plunkett Street as investigators worked this scene.

Family members were also observed talking with police officers, looking for answers about how and why their loved one was apparently shot.

One family member told Local 10 News two other people who may have been involved could be detained for questioning.

On the ground, several other evidence markers were placed throughout the morning as detectives worked to piece together what happened.

Records indicate Alexander is facing several charges, including premeditated murder, aggravated assault with intent to commit a felony, possession of a weapon by a convicted felon and resisting an officer without violence.

This isn’t the first time the 38-year-old has faced similar charges.

According to the Florida Department of Corrections, Alexander served 10 years in prison for attempted murder and attempted robbery charges from 2007. He was released in 2017.

In 2024, he was sentenced to three years for charges including possession of a weapon and cocaine, aggravated fleeing and eluding law enforcement, and obstruction. He completed that sentence earlier this year.

National weather agency Météo-France is warning about temperatures approaching 40 C (104 F) from Tuesday onward in southeastern France. And in the U.K., an amber heat health alert for most of England will be in place beginning Tuesday as temperatures are forecast to climb to 36 C (96.8 F) later this week.

Across Europe, the extreme heat began in May and has contributed to major wildfires, prolonged drought and new national temperature records, as well as thousands of projected heat-related deaths.

Globally, so far this is the third-hottest year, behind 2024 and 2025, climate statistics show. But 2026 still has time to catch up. Thanks to the one-two punch of accelerated human-caused global warming and a supersized El Nino — a periodic warming of parts of the Pacific that leads to temperature variations around the globe — there’s an increasing chance that by the end of the year, 2026 could become the hottest year on record, scientists said.

Last month saw the highest average sea surface temperature ever recorded for July across the extrapolar oceans, or the oceans free of seasonal sea ice, according to the European climate agency Copernicus.

That was partially fueled by developing El Nino conditions in the equatorial Pacific, the service said. The new average record for July is 20.96 degrees Celsius (69.73 degrees Fahrenheit), which beat the 2023 record of 20.89 C (69.60 F).

But last month’s average surface air temperature globally was 16.90 C (62.42 F), making it only the joint second warmest July on record, tied with July 2024, Copernicus reported.

Western Europe sets new record

In Western Europe, meanwhile, the average temperature record for the June-July period hit 21.62 C (70.92 F), Copernicus said, toppling the 2022 record.

“Persistent high-pressure systems trapped heat over western Europe, the extreme temperatures also amplified widespread drought. As soils dry out, they lose their ability to provide natural cooling, allowing heat to build more readily,” said Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.

“This is a clear example of how climate change is intensifying heat extremes, with heat and drought increasingly reinforcing one another.”

In France alone, heat wave alerts were issued for the first time on record in May, when more than half the country recorded new monthly temperature highs. The heat intensified in June, a period during which at least 5,700 more deaths than usual were recorded, according to France’s public health agency.

Météo-France said June 23 was the hottest day ever recorded in the country. Temperatures climbed as high as 44.3 C (111.7 F) in the southwest.

Two other heat wave episodes were recorded in July, amplifying a historic wildfire in southwestern France that forced 220,000 people to flee their homes in one of the continent’s biggest evacuation efforts since World War II.

Spain battles wildfires

Temperatures were slightly cooler in the U.K. on Monday but the country readied for its fifth heat wave in an exceptionally hot and dry summer, with half of England and all of Wales plunged into drought.

Provisional data show that England and Wales have had their driest July in records dating back to 1836, with 19 counties of England seeing no rain for the entire month.

The heat alert warns that significant impacts on health services, including a rise in deaths among older and vulnerable people, are likely.

Two record-breaking heat waves in May and June led to more than 2,800 excess deaths linked to extreme temperatures.

An 18-year-old died after getting into difficulty in the sea at Camber Sands beach in southern England on Sunday, the latest of dozens of deaths recorded in open waters in recent months.

In Spain, firefighters were battling multiple blazes, including one that broke out on Friday in Tírig, Valencia, that has burned more than 3 square miles (8 square kilometers) and has involved more than 300 personnel and 21 aircraft to combat it.

A separate wildfire in the southern Huelva region had affected a similar sized area since it broke out on Thursday. While temperatures across Spain remained high, some parts of the country were expecting thunderstorms Monday afternoon that could bring strong gusts of wind.

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Dazio reported from Berlin. Sylvia Hui in London and Suman Naishadham in Madrid contributed to this report.

El despliegue por tierra, mar y aire forma parte de la Operación “Escudo de Acero” y se realizó desde la comunidad de Metetí, en la selvática provincia de Darién, cerca de la frontera con Colombia. La orden provino del director general del Servicio Nacional de Fronteras (Senafront), Larry Solís.

Agentes armados y equipados se dirigieron a sus unidades asignadas alrededor de las 10 de la mañana. Algunos de los elementos abordaron vehículos blindados que salieron en caravana hacia Yaviza y Puerto Quimba, desde donde parte del contingente continuó en lanchas río adentro.

Solís confirmó que el operativo se desarrolla en coordinación con las fuerzas colombianas.

“Ellos están haciendo lo propio del otro lado, de Colombia. Ellos mantienen su postura combativa y sí, nosotros queremos más que todo ser interoperables en la región”, afirmó.

Solís señaló que el sábado sostuvo una conversación con el general Eduardo Alberto Arias, jefe de una brigada de la Séptima División del Ejército colombiano, para informarle de la operación.

Las unidades se desplegaron hacia ríos, puestos fronterizos y otros puntos estratégicos. “Vamos a seguir combatiendo el narcotráfico, seguimos combatiendo al crimen organizado que se mantiene en el cordón de la frontera”, subrayó Solís, quien mencionó al Clan del Golfo entre las organizaciones que operan en la región.

El operativo también incluye el uso de drones y otras herramientas tecnológicas. Solís señaló que Panamá se prepara ante posibles amenazas con drones contra puestos binacionales y que Estados Unidos está colaborando en el desarrollo de contramedidas.

“Ahora mismo tenemos cierta preocupación porque tenemos unos puestos binacionales que compartimos con el ejército de Colombia, con la policía de Colombia y nosotros no descartamos que en su momento puedan puedan tener alguna amenaza directa con drones y nos estamos preparando para eso” afirmó Solís.

La operación se produce dos días después de que Abelardo de la Espriella asumió como presidente de Colombia con la promesa de priorizar la seguridad y combatir a los grupos armados ilegales.

En su primer discurso ante miembros de las fuerzas armadas, el nuevo mandatario colombiano lanzó una advertencia a las estructuras criminales: “tienen dos caminos: someterse al imperio de la ley o enfrentar la fuerza pública”.

El presidente panameño José Raúl Mulino se reunió ese mismo día con De la Espriella en Cali. En el encuentro, en el que también participó el ministro de Seguridad de Panamá, Frank Ábrego, se abordó el apoyo de la policía y las fuerzas militares colombianas en la lucha contra el narcotráfico mediante la asesoría y capacitación de los estamentos de seguridad panameños.

Solís aseguró que Panamá busca mantener la coordinación con las fuerzas policiales y militares colombianas para reforzar la seguridad en ambos lados de la frontera.

En tanto, en la ciudad de Panamá, se realizan los ejercicios militares Panamax con la participación de miembros de las fuerzas armadas de Estados Unidos y representantes de 20 países, con el objetivo de mejorar la interoperabilidad, reforzar la capacidad colectiva para llevar a cabo operaciones multinacionales complejas en todos los ámbitos, garantizar la libre circulación del comercio a través del Canal de Panamá y mantener la seguridad y la estabilidad en la región.

Those days are over. Long over.

The wide-eyed newcomer is gone, replaced by a poised and professional 18-year-old who is embracing her role as the leader of the sport's next wave as the 2028 Olympics approach.

The proof was on display during the final round of the U.S. gymnastics championships on Sunday, when Rivera — still not quite 100% while recovering from a hamstring injury sustained at the Pan Am Games in June — won her second straight national title with a poised and polished performance that solidified her status as the current face of a women's program two years out from the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.

Rivera’s two-day total of 111.950 was more than a point clear of runner-up Claire Pease, making Rivera the first American woman not named Simone Biles to go back-to-back since former world and Olympic champion Jordyn Wieber did it in 2011 and 2012.

Heady company to be sure, but company in which Rivera increasingly feels like she belongs. It might not have seemed like it in the summer of 2024 when she ceded the spotlight to her more accomplished teammates, but the relentlessly upbeat Texan has no problem admitting these days she wants to lead from the front.

“I am comfortable with it,” she said. “And I just love kind of being a leader in a way."

Anna Liukin, who coaches Rivera alongside her husband Valeri, called Rivera “motherly." Rivera laughed when the description was passed along because well, it's strange to hear as a teenager. Yet in many ways, it's applicable.

Lee and Jade Carey helped Rivera navigate her way through the sport's biggest stage and come out with a gold medal on the other side. She feels it's her duty to do the same to the generation of gymnasts just starting to find their way as the lure of a potentially life-changing hometown Games in Los Angeles looms.

“I think it’s just really important to give pep talks because when you’re young, you’re still learning a lot,” she said. “So I just think it's good to get positive vibes.”

Even if producing them takes a little practice. Rivera relied on that practice Thursday when a fall on uneven bars — perhaps her strongest event — sent her tumbling down the leaderboard. She shook the miscue off and found herself in fourth heading into Sunday.

A comeback still seemed somewhat unlikely when Rivera began Sunday with a gritty bars set that included her fighting through a mini-stall just before her dismount and ended with her and giving Valeri Liukin a “what are you gonna do?” shrug after a dismount that included a small step.

Yet twenty minutes later, it was long forgotten during a graceful balance beam routine that brought her to within striking distance of the lead.

“It took a few years to learn that, but I’m at a point now where it’s just like there already,” she said. “I don’t really have to think about it too much.”

Her black-and-white bedazzled leotard glittering under the lights, Rivera put on a performance that made her look every bit the star she has become.

Rivera never glanced at the scoreboard to mark her progress, too intent on trying to stay warm and focused during sometimes lengthy delays. If she was bothered, it didn't show. Every time she saluted the judges, Rivera was all business.

Now she heads into the fall hoping to make her first world championship team. Rivera was practically a lock last year before rolling her ankle during selection camp, something Liukin called “heartbreaking.”

Provided she can stay healthy, Rivera is eager to make up for lost time in the first major international team meet since Paris. Yes, her hamstring still isn't quite there, but she found her way to the top of the podium anyway.

“I think it just shows how strong I am mentally,” she said. “Because physically everything’s there. But the mental aspect of things is definitely where it’s at. You can’t really do this without having a strong mentality.”

Pease and fellow first-day co-leader Skye Blakely couldn't quite keep up. Pease led with two rotations to go, but her floor routine included one tumbling pass that ended with her stepping out of bounds and another in which she opted to keep her right foot hovering above the floor rather than set it down for a penalty.

Still, Pease's second-place finish was a marked improvement from a year ago, when she came to nationals fresh off a victory at U.S. Classic and stumbled to 10th. This time around, she finds herself in a solid position to join good friend and teammate Rivera in the Netherlands.

Blakely's bid to build off a promising opening night stalled quickly. She sat at the end of her first tumbling pass and bounced out of bounds on her final one, her score of 11.900 dropping her from contention for the top of the podium on her way to a seventh-place finish. The 21-year-old called it “irritating” but stressed she's pleased with her progress in her first elite meet competing the all-around since 2024.

Charleigh Bullock, who turned 16 last month, was third. Reese Esponda, who trains at the Houston-area gym owned by Biles' family, was fourth.

Carey, who is methodically building difficulty into her routines as she eyes a third trip to the Games, won the vault title and finished fifth in the all-around in a meet that doubled as a homecoming for the Phoenix native. The two-time Olympic gold medalist also marveled at Rivera's growth both on and off the floor since that memorable trip to Paris.

“I think Hezly did a fantastic job tonight and kind of rebounding from night one and just proving to herself and everybody else that that was just a little fluke and she’s capable of so much,” Carey said. “Back-to-back national champion is something that she should be really proud of.”

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

“I can’t do anything about it, so you just run with it,” Gibbs said.

Gibbs used late pit strategy and held off Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell over the final 20 laps to win the NASCAR Cup Series race Sunday at Iowa Speedway.

Gibbs — the 23-year-old grandson of former NFL coaching great and NASCAR team owner Joe Gibbs — won by 0.253 seconds over Bell for his second victory of the season and his career.

Gibbs and Bell each pitted with 60 laps remaining in the 350-lap race, but while Bell took four tires, Gibbs just went with two right-side tires, and came out ahead. And when leader Ross Chastain pitted on Lap 330, Gibbs took over the top spot and fought off a late charge by Bell.

Tyler Allen, Gibbs’ crew chief, thought taking two tires was the only chance to get ahead of Bell in that final pit cycle.

“We knew after practice the left sides weren’t wearing much and they tended to refire OK,” Allen said. “So in terms of coming into the race, it was definitely a viable option.”

Gibbs liked the aggressive call.

“I think in the position with our points situation, for sure,” he said.

Gibbs, who picked up his first career win April 12 at Bristol, came into the race ranked fourth in the season standings, and moved into second — 103 points behind JGR teammate Denny Hamlin.

Gibbs, who had an issue in the pits on his first stop of the day when his jack fell too early during the tire change, fell back to 28th before charging back.

“You’re kind of hosed after that deal,” Gibbs said. “So you’ve got to stay locked in and keep working.”

It was the seventh second-place finish of the season for Bell, who led 108 laps.

“Ty did a really good job,” Bell said. “He did a great job of managing the race.”

Pole-sitter Ryan Blaney, who won the inaugural 2024 Cup Series race at the 0.875-mile oval, was third after leading a race-high 129 laps.

Josh Berry finished fourth. It was Berry’s best finish of the season, and only his third top-10 finish. Hamlin finished fifth.

Chase Briscoe was sixth. Chastain recovered to finish seventh. AJ Allmendinger was eighth, followed by defending race winner William Byron. Austin Dillon was 10th.

Reddick’s struggles

Tyler Reddick’s summer struggles continued when he crashed into Erik Jones four laps into the race.

The rear end of Reddick’s car slid entering Turn 1, and Reddick ran into Jones before hitting the wall. Reddick finished last in the 36-car field.

“A 100% that was on me,” Reddick said. “It’s something I don’t normally do, make those kinds of mistakes. Just gut-wrenching on a lot of levels. I thought we kind of figured out what we needed to do for the race today, and made a killer mistake earlier.”

Reddick won the first three races of the season, and four of the first six, and has five wins overall. But he has had four finishes of 30th place or worse in the last six races.

No brakes, all gas for Hamlin

Hamlin had brake issues during practice Saturday, which led to the team changing brake rotors and a cooling unit. Hamlin had to go to the rear of the field, but surged back to finish fifth despite having more brake issues during the race.

“I just had white knuckles every lap, not knowing where my car was going to land when I got in the corner,” Hamlin said. “That was a crazy race to have to do it the whole time without (brakes), but you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do, and the team did an amazing job. I would take that day a hundred out of a hundred times.”

“I’ve never seen Denny that exhausted,” Joe Gibbs said. “I think he drove his heart out.”

Up next

The Cup Series moves to Richmond Raceway on Saturday night.

AP NASCAR: https://apnews.com/hub/nascar-racing

Brennan came into the final tournament of the regular season at No. 105 in the FedEx Cup, a disappointing year with only one top 10. Now his season gets extended by at least one week — maybe longer based on how he's playing — after his second PGA Tour title in two years.

Brennan was one shot behind Hossler when he ran off five straight birdies starting on the fourth hole, all of them inside 8 feet. That turned a deficit into a three-shot lead at the turn when Hossler took a bogey on the ninth hole.

Then it was a matter of hanging on for the 24-year-old Brennan, a Virginia native who played his college golf about 30 miles away at Wake Forest.

“I don't want to be done playing golf,” Brennan said. “Unfortunately, I've had a couple of tough Sundays. Outside of that, I had been playing really solid. This is my sixth week in a row. I'm perfectly happy running on fumes next week.”

The FedEx Cup playoffs start Thursday with the FedEx St. Jude Championship at the TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee. Only the top 70 players advance, and Brennan shot up to No. 47.

Jackson Koivun, who left Auburn in June and won the 3M Open in only his third start, narrowly hung on to the 70th spot and goes from college to the postseason in only two months.

But he had to sweat it out after closing with a 71. Matt Wallace and Davis Thompson were still on the course and in range of finishing high enough to bump Koivun out of the top 70. But they failed to hole all the key putts, and Koivun made it with eight points to spare.

A bogey might have been enough to knock him out of the postseason. But on the 18th hole at Sedgefield Country Club, Koivun piped his drive straight down the middle, leaving a wedge from the fairway and an easy par. Known for his composure, he was emotionally invested in every outcome down the stretch, a rare sight from the last two months.

“It's just it’s a different type of nerves when you know you don’t have your stuff and you've got to go out there and execute some shots,” Koivun said. “I think that kind of sparked some emotion in me. Yeah, it’s easier to get comfortable when you’re playing well. It was just kind of a different feeling for me today.”

Brennan started feeling the nerves, too. He was four shots behind in a tie for fourth going into the final round of the 3M Open and shot 74 to finish out of the top 20. Last week at the Rocket Classic, he was in the final group and one shot out of the lead when he went the wrong direction again, closing with a 73 to tie for 15th.

He delivered in the final event of the regular season, and it was his mother who came onto the 18th green to celebrate who reminded Brennan the victory also sends him to the Masters. He made his Masters debut this year going from the PGA Tour Americas straight to the big leagues when he won the Bank of Utah Championship last fall.

Brennan made birdie on the final hole to finish at 22-under 258, matching the tournament record at Sedgefield shot three other times, most recently last year by Wake Forest grad Cameron Young.

Ben James, the No. 1 player from the PGA Tour University ranking who has a card already secure for 2027, fell out of contention on Saturday but roared back with a 61 to finish third.

Brennan was the only player to move into the top 70, replacing Steven Fisk, who was at No. 69 but missed the cut at the Wyndham Champion and fell to No. 71.

Also failing to advance to the postseason was Brooks Koepka, the first player to rejoin the PGA Tour after being at LIV Golf. Koepka needed a fourth-place finish and was saddled again by poor putting that led to a tie for 67th. The five-time major champion had only one top 10 this year.

“It's just all on the greens. I don't know what they deal is, got zero confidence,” Koepka said. “There's going to be a lot of changes here soon.

“I think it’s pretty pathetic that I can’t get through (to the postseason),” he said. “To be in the prime of your career and be as good as I think I am, I think that’s very pathetic, disappointing. Just need to go home and completely reevaluate everything."

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

High pressure will remain the dominant weather feature across our region. That means showers will be limited, but the heat will be plentiful.

Monday will bring hot temperatures and a major heat risk, with heat indices reaching 105 degrees or higher. The sea breeze will push inland by the afternoon, triggering showers across the Everglades and points west.

Keep those water bottles handy because more sizzling temperatures are on the way for the rest of the week.

Trump said that, beginning Sept. 1, Scharf will be replacing David Warrington, who will be leaving the administration to join the private sector. Trump noted that Scharf previously served as a federal prosecutor and represented him in a number of cases, including at the Supreme Court.

“Will is Tough, Strong, and Smart! He also loves our Country, and respects the Law,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Will Scharf will do a great job as White House Counsel!”

The shakeup in the White House counsel's office comes at a critical juncture — just months ahead of the midterm elections, where Trump's Republican Party will be fighting to hold on to control of Congress. Democrats have vowed to pursue investigations into Trump and his administration if they are successful in November.

The White House counsel’s job is to advise on legal and policy questions related to the presidency. The office is the primary White House contact for the Justice Department, and it handles presidential pardons, works on judicial appointments and reviews legislation. The office also helps investigate and manage congressional investigations into the administration and lawsuits against the president when he is sued in his official capacity.

During Trump's first term, Scharf worked to get judges and justices confirmed for him. They included U.S. Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh — who himself served as White House staff secretary for President George W. Bush — and Amy Coney Barrett.

In the period when Trump was out of office, Scharf joined his legal team in October 2023 and was one of his lawyers in the election interference case brought by special counsel Jack Smith. The case went before the Supreme Court, which ruled that presidents enjoy sweeping immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts.

Scharf is among several of Trump’s lawyers who have been rewarded with spots in his second administration. Todd Blanche, who represented Trump during the Republican’s hush money trial in New York. was confirmed last week as attorney general.

As White House staff secretary, Scharf was responsible for managing the papers that cross the president’s desk. He is at Trump's side when the president signs executive orders and often provides running narration on what Trump is signing.

Trump in July 2025 named Scharf as chair of the National Capital Planning Commission, the executive branch agency with jurisdiction over construction and major renovations to government buildings in the region.

Trump's ballroom won final approval from the NCPC in April, though a divided federal appeals court ruled Friday that construction on the project must stop because Congress had not approved it. Trump has vowed to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The project is already well on its way and has begun to rise above ground on the east side of the White House.

Según las autoridades, un oficial de la policía de Hallandale Beach (HBPD) patrullaba la cuadra 1700 de East Hallandale Beach Blvd. el sábado, alrededor de las 9:22 p.m., en su patrulla plenamente identificada, cuando vio lo que describió como un vehículo sospechoso cerca de un negocio que estaba cerrado.

Cuando el oficial se acercó al vehículo, la policía dijo que el conductor —identificado luego en los registros de la cárcel como Mohammad Chehade— puso el auto en reversa, golpeó la patrulla y se dio a la fuga.

Mientras el oficial lo perseguía, la policía señaló que Chehade intentó varias veces embestir la patrulla con su auto y la golpeó al menos una vez más.

Las autoridades indicaron que el oficial no resultó herido, pero su vehículo sufrió daños por unos 5,000 dólares.

La policía dijo que la persecución terminó cuando Chehade estrelló su vehículo en la cuadra 900 de North Ocean Drive, en Hollywood. Fue detenido a varias cuadras del lugar del accidente, luego de intentar escapar a pie, según las autoridades.

Chehade enfrenta cargos de huida agravada con lesiones o daños, agresión agravada contra un oficial de policía y resistencia a la autoridad sin violencia. Hasta la tarde del domingo, permanecía recluido sin derecho a fianza en la Cárcel Principal de Broward.

Wilson set an MLB record for his position, playing his 111th consecutive errorless game at shortstop for the Athletics and surpassing the Baltimore Orioles’ Mike Bordick, who went 110 games in 2002. Wilson last made an error on July 6, 2025, in a game against San Francisco.

Jack Wilson, a 12-year major leaguer who also played shortstop, instilled in his son that defense comes first.

“He’s a very defensive-first guy for me growing up by teaching me defense first before the hitting side of things and making sure you’re always prepared to play defense every day,” said Wilson in the corner of a loud clubhouse after the Athletics beat the Boston Red Sox 4-3 on Sunday at Fenway Park, ending a 12-series losing skid.

Like any day he plays short, the 24-year-old Wilson was out taking grounders with many of his teammates about two hours before the start of the game.

“I do that every day that I’m playing short,” he said. “The DH days I try to stay off my feet as much as I can, but every day I’m playing short I’m taking ground balls no matter what. You need to get as much work on the field, ground balls-wise as you can.”

On Sunday, he had five plays in the field; two pops, with one in which second baseman Jeff McNeil collided with him on an infield fly, two grounders and the middleman on a 4-6-3 double play. One of the grounders was hit deep into the hole by Ceddanne Rafaela and Wilson made a long throw to first.

Starting pitcher J.T. Ginn sees the work.

“It’s pretty amazing the way he prepares and works,” Ginn said. “That stuff doesn’t come by chance. He’s a great worker. He’s put a lot of time into his defense.”

The work paid off and he knows it’s a good message for Little Leaguers across the country.

“Yes, get a lot of work in,” Wilson said, smiling.

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According to authorities, an HBPD officer was patrolling the 1700 block of East Hallandale Beach Blvd. on Saturday around 9:22 p.m. in his fully marked police cruiser when he saw what he described as a suspicious vehicle near a business that was not open.

When the officer approached the vehicle, police said the driver, who has since been identified in jail records as Mohammad Chehade, put his car in reverse, striking the police vehicle, before taking off.

As the officer pursued Chehade, police said he made several attempts to use his car to strike the officer’s cruiser and made contact with it at least one additional time.

Authorities said the officer was not injured but his vehicle sustained approximately $5,000 worth of damage.

Police said the pursuit ended when Chehade crashed his vehicle along the 900 block of North Ocean Drive in Hollywood. He was taken into custody several blocks away from the crash scene after initially fleeing on foot, authorities said.

Chehade is facing charges of aggravated fleeing with injury or damage, aggravated battery on a police officer and resisting an officer without violence. As of Sunday afternoon, he was being held at the Broward Main Jail without bond.

“His biggest worry was letting us down, that’s the type of guy he is," Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell said Sunday, when Bridgewater was placed on the reserve/retired list.

The 33-year-old journeyman had signed a one-year deal with the Lions in March after spending 2025 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He also spent 2023 and part of 2024 with Detroit.

“So I’ve known Teddy a long time. As a human being he is unbelievable. Certainly as a player, everything that he’s about, the type of teammate he is, the way he prepares. He always played the game up here," an emotional Campbell said, pointing to his head. “He had a huge heart. He’s going to be missed."

Campbell, who was assistant head coach with the New Orleans Saints when Bridgewater played there in 2018 and 2019, has maintained a close relationship with the quarterback.

“I’ll never forget 2019 when Drew (Brees) got injured. We’d just gone out to the Rams, got beat out there and Drew got his thumb and we lost him for five weeks," Campbell said. “Teddy stepped in and we won five in a row. That was Teddy. His time being with us meant a lot, and it meant a lot to our guys. He’s going to be missed."

Bridgewater had been signed to back up Jared Goff. Undrafted rookie Luke Altmyer, the only other QB on the Lions roster, had been getting more reps in training camp earlier this week when Bridgewater was absent, and again on Sunday.

“I thought he did some really good things," Campbell said. “He was put in some tough positions for a young player that you absolutely have to be put in, you just do, you’ve got to be thrust in, you need to fail, you need to make mistakes so you can grow and we thought he handled it really well.”

Altmyer said he has learned so much from Bridgewater.

“It was a joy to spend some time with him, but it brings about opportunity for myself, and the standard is to play good football no matter how many reps and or whatever my role is, I have a job to do and my job is to do that very, very well at a high level," Altmyer said. “I’m thankful. I believe in my abilities and I’m going to go cut it loose whatever that looks like for me.’’

The Lions plan to sign a veteran quarterback as soon as Monday.

Campbell said Goff will not play in the preseason game Thursday in Cincinnati.

“Certainly Altmyer will take a heavy load and anybody else we get we’ll get them up to speed as fast as we can and give them some reps," Campbell said.

Bridgewater was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in 2014 and started 28 games his first two seasons. Before the 2016 season he tore his ACL and suffered more structural knee damage that kept him out of action into the 2017 season. Bridgewater also played for the Dolphins, Broncos, Panthers and Jets.

In 2024, before he re-signed with the Lions in December, Bridgewater coached Miami Northwestern Senior High, his alma mater, to the Florida Class 3A state championship. But he was suspended for the 2025 season after revealing that he personally paid for meals, ride-share services and treatments for some players.

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

Nelson’s family confirmed the death in a statement that did not say where he died or provide a cause.

“On Sunday morning our beloved husband, dad, grandfather and great-grandfather Don Nelson peacefully went to be with the Lord, surrounded by his loving family,” the statement said. “Throughout his last week, friends and family encircled him with love, sharing the blessing of his friendship and revisiting treasured memories.”

Nelson is one of two coaches in NBA history to have at least 250 wins with three different franchises — Milwaukee, Dallas and Golden State — also serving as general manager for all three franchises. He was a three-time coach of the year and made the playoffs 18 times in 31 seasons. He went to the conference finals three times with the Bucks and once with the Mavericks, never winning a title.

Nelson introduced what is now known as the point forward, and his up-tempo style of offense created a buzz. He said the idea of shifting from the dominant big men of the 1970s to an offense focused on speed and the fast break came from his playing days under Celtics Hall of Fame coach Red Auerbach.

“The league really hadn’t seen an offense like the one we were running, and the results were undeniable,” Nelson wrote in 2016 in The Players’ Tribune.

Nelson said that “without Red Auerbach teaching me the mechanics of running the fast break, none of it would have been possible. He deserves all the credit for Nellie Ball, and for how fast the game of basketball is played today.”

Nelson played 11 of his 14 seasons in Boston and was on five Celtics championship teams under four different coaches. He became an assistant coach in Milwaukee after retiring as a player, then took over after coach Larry Costello resigned 18 games into the 1976-77 season. Nelson coached the Bucks for 11 seasons starting in 1976 and won seven straight division titles.

In Nelson’s second season, Milwaukee overcame a 29-point fourth quarter deficit to beat Atlanta 117-115 in regulation.

“I coached the team as though I was still playing for the Celtics, while implementing a few of my own strategies,” Nelson wrote. “I knew I wanted to play unconventional basketball and use speed to my advantage.”

His fast-paced offenses were probably best on display with Golden State in the “Run TMC” era featuring future Hall of Famers Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond and Chris Mullin. Nelson said he wanted them on the court at the same time.

Nelson spent 11 seasons over two stints with Golden State. The first one was punctuated by a rift with rookie star Chris Webber, who was traded away a month into his second season. Nelson, demoralized by the trade, missed nine games that season due to illness and resigned under pressure three months later in February 1995.

In between, Nelson was fired after less than one season in New York in 1995-96, then coached in Dallas for eight seasons, missing 21 games with the Mavericks starting in December 2000 to recuperate from prostate cancer surgery.

Nelson’s son, Donnie, joined his father as an assistant coach with the Mavericks in 1998, later became general manager and remained with the organization until 2021. Together they persuaded 20-year-old German star Dirk Nowitzki to pass up European basketball and join the Mavericks. Don Nelson also developed Steve Nash into one of the NBA’s top point guards before Nash went on to win back-to-back MVPs with the Phoenix Suns in 2005 and 2006.

“Don Nelson was a true innovator whose influence on the game of basketball is still felt today,” current Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “He consistently challenged conventional thinking, experimented with different lineups and styles of play and saw possibilities in the game that others often did not. So much of what is now commonplace in the modern NBA can be traced back to the way Nellie approached the game."

At Golden State, Nelson’s “We Believe” Warriors led by Baron Davis upset Nowitzki and the top-seeded Mavericks in the first round of the 2007 playoffs in one of the biggest shockers in NBA history. In his final season as a coach, Nelson mentored rookie Stephen Curry in 2009-10.

“One of the big reasons I was drafted by the Warriors was because of Don Nelson. The story is he never liked rookies, but from Day 1 he challenged me and gave me an opportunity to be my best self on the court,” Curry said in a statement released by the Warriors. “He taught me a lot during our one season together and I’ll never forget the night he became the winningest coach in NBA history in Minnesota. We were so happy for him. He had an immeasurable impact on the sport and will go down as one of the greatest minds in the history of the game.”

Davis added: “When I think of Nellie, I’ll always think of the ‘We Believe’ team and our incredible run in 2007. He understood what made us go and made us believe we could beat anybody, ultimately helping us make history as the first No. 8 seed to defeat a No. 1 seed in a seven-game series. That time in my life and career was truly special, and Nellie was a huge part of making it possible.”

Nelson retired as the NBA’s career coaching wins leader with 1,335, just ahead of Lenny Wilkens’ 1,332. Nelson kept that top spot for nearly 12 years before close friend and now-retired San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich passed him in March 2022.

Nelson was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012. In 2025, he received the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by the National Basketball Coaches Association. Miffed that the Mavericks sent Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in a blockbuster trade, Nelson wore a pair of Doncic’s signature Jordan Brand sneakers to the awards ceremony. He called the trade a “tremendous mistake.”

Born in Muskegon, Michigan, Nelson attended high school in Rock Island, Illinois, and averaged a double-double in college at Iowa. He spent his retirement years living on the Hawaiian island of Maui and owned several short-term rentals on the island.

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

The underlying tone of the social media content the 22-year-old gymnast and the rest of his five-man business team produce for Richard's growing legion of followers gives off the vibe of someone who doesn't take himself — or his sport — too seriously.

Most of that is by design. The athlete who has made it his mission to bring gymnastics to a new audience knows making it seem like fun is a vital part of that process.

It's hardly the only part. And any questions about how invested Richard is in this whole thing were answered Saturday night, when he became the second Black gymnast to win a men's all-around title.

Richard pulled away from Shane Wiskus and Danila Leykin with six polished and professional routines, offering tangible proof that underneath goofing around on TikTok, his plan to be the face of the men's Olympic program in Los Angeles in two years is very much in full swing.

“Winning matters to show that your process is working,” Richard said late Saturday.

Making a statement in more ways than one

That's even if Richard's process can sometimes be at odds with the norms of a sport that has looked a certain way since long before the Massachusetts native was born.

When Richard saluted the judges this weekend, he did it while wearing a uniform that ran afoul of the rules. And we're not talking about the singlet that featured his trademark across his chest.

Rather than don stirrup pants — long the de facto uniform on events like pommel horse — Richard opted for shorts with white compression leggings underneath. It's something he began experimenting with during the later stages of his college career at Michigan, and one he has no plans of abandoning in domestic events even if it means receiving a three-tenths neutral deduction each time.

On Thursday night, that meant his lead over Leykin was slimmer than it had to be. That didn't stop Richard from taking the same deduction at the start of the competition on Saturday, admitting he was more than willing to potentially jeopardize his shot at a national title to make a statement.

“I told you I’d laugh if that happens,” Richard said.

It didn't come to that. He put together an energetic and confident performance to win by more than two points over Wiskus, a 2020 Olympian, and the promising 19-year-old Leykin.

When Richard landed his vault during the final rotation — one that remains a work in progress as he tries to get his power under control — to seal the victory, he turned toward the crowd inside the Mortgage Matchup Center and flashed the “No. 1” sign before posing for a selfie atop the medal stand while asking the fans in the background to join in.

Hey, the brand is the brand. And Richard doesn't believe he has to choose between being a funny, charismatic and remarkably self-aware influencer and a champion. Yes, his uniform choice was a conversation starter. He doesn't think it should distract from what he does while wearing it.

“When you come to a competition, nothing else matters besides staying in your zone, focusing on the details and going for those skills,” he said. “That’s all I came here to do, get better under pressure.”

Returning to the world stage

Well, that and earn a spot on the national and world championship teams, roles he surprisingly missed out on a year ago that seemed to mute the glow from helping the American men win their first team medal in 16 years at the 2024 Olympics.

He promised in the aftermath to get back to work, and with Olympic teammates Brody Malone and Asher Hong out this week — Malone is taking a break while Hong, a two-time national champion, is recovering from an ankle injury — Richard spent his time in the desert showing he's ready to lead in something other than clicks.

The teenager who announced himself by earning a surprise bronze in the all-around at the 2023 world championships is evolving. He served as a captain at Michigan, and as the window opens on his prime, he seems ready to pick up the mantle as a U.S. leader.

“I feel like I’m not like, OK, there’s older guys that are like veterans, but I feel I’m entering that veteran territory,” he said. “It’s not my first worlds. It’s not first Olympics.”

Even if there is plenty to do to assure himself of a place on the team that will step into the spotlight only a home Olympics provides two summers from now. He knows he needs to upgrade the difficulty in some of his routines to become a legitimate medal threat in Los Angeles.

He'll get a litmus test on where he currently stacks up when the American men take the floor at the world championships in the Netherlands in October. As encouraged as he is at how things are going, he's hardly satisfied.

The man who has a team of five working for him to keep his website and social media accounts booming understands there are a lot of 30-plus-hour weeks in the gym ahead. It's a grind, one he embraces when the camera isn't on.

He's hardly the only athlete who considers themselves an influencer. But the reality is anybody with a camera can become one. Not everyone can be a champion. As Los Angeles draws ever closer, Richard is leaning into the difference between the two.

“The No. 1 trait of the most successful athletes, athlete creators, people growing their sports, people hitting icon status is winning,” he said. “And I want to keep winning and pushing myself to see how much better I can get.”

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

As umpires took the field and walked by the Braves' dugout on the third base side, Sale began barking. Merzel tossed him and Sale said something to crew chief Dan Bellino as the two talked near the dugout rail.

“I was by the bat rack because the game was about to start and I was getting my helmet,” center fielder Michael Harris II said after his 10th-inning single gave Atlanta a 2-1 win. “I didn’t see him talking to him, but I actually seen the motion of him throwing him out. I was kind of confused but then I saw Sale and remember what happened yesterday and I put two and two together."

Sale was called for his third career balk by Merzel during the fifth inning of Saturday’s 5-4 loss. Rookie Spencer Jones scored on the balk after getting an RBI triple and Sale began fiercely yelling at Merzel before manager Walt Weiss continued the argument and was ejected.

“I think he had some words for the umpire from yesterday, but you know what, it’s behind us," Weiss said. “Everyone had their say and we move on.”

Bellino told a pool reporter after Saturday's game that Sale was called for the balk because he did not declare he was going to pitch from the windup. Bellino said Sale declared he was pitching from the windup when he struck out José Caballero but did not do so ahead of the at-bat to Austin Wells.

It was Sale’s fourth career ejection. It was his first since Aug. 3, 2019, when he pitched for Boston and was tossed by Mike Estabrook for arguing balls and strikes during the fourth inning of a 9-2 loss at Yankee Stadium.

Sale allowed three runs and five hits in six innings Saturday for his first loss since June 28. In his third season with the Braves, the veteran left-hander is 12-7 with a 2.20 ERA in 21 starts.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

The full episode can be seen at the top of this page.

He joined host Glenna Milberg on the latest episode of “This Week in South Florida”, and their conversation can be seen at the top of this page.

El representante estadounidense Mario Díaz-Balart emitió declaraciones que, según describió, marcan “el comienzo de un nuevo capítulo para Colombia y su pueblo” bajo el mandato del presidente colombiano Abelardo De La Espriella.

Díaz-Balart, el fiscal general de Estados Unidos, Todd Blanche, y Terry Cole, el administrador de la DEA, formaron parte de la delegación estadounidense que asistió a la toma de posesión de De La Espriella el viernes en Cali .

“Ayer comenzó una nueva amistad y una colaboración para trabajar en equipo en la lucha contra el narcotráfico y fortalecer nuestra relación para contrarrestar las amenazas a nuestra seguridad nacional y la seguridad pública”, escribió Blanche en un comunicado publicado en X el sábado.

Cole, exsecretario de seguridad pública de Virginia, también emitió un comunicado el sábado en el que afirmaba que la alianza entre Estados Unidos y Colombia ya había cambiado la historia anteriormente.

“La DEA está lista para apoyar nuevamente a Colombia. Perseguiremos a quienes se lucran con la cocaína, la corrupción, la violencia y el terror”, escribió Cole . “No habrá refugio seguro, ni ruta de narcotráfico protegida, ni inmunidad para quienes envenenan nuestras comunidades”.

De La Espriella, de 48 años, tiene doble ciudadanía estadounidense y colombiana.

La delegación estadounidense también incluyó a Hugo Guevara, de la Embajada de Estados Unidos en Bogotá; Sara Carter, directora de la Oficina de Política Nacional de Control de Drogas; Cliff Sims, asesor de seguridad nacional del vicepresidente; Viviana Bovo, subsecretaria adjunta principal interina de la Oficina de Asuntos del Hemisferio Occidental; Joseph M. Humire, subsecretario adjunto de Guerra para Asuntos de Seguridad de las Américas; y Kris Jarvis, jefe de operaciones internacionales de la Fuerza de Tarea Conjunta Vulcan.

Según informó Associated Press el sábado, el ejército colombiano declaró que una facción de la guerrilla de izquierda detonó un coche bomba en una caseta de peaje e hirió a dos guardias.

También el sábado, el general colombiano Jorge Mora asumió el cargo de ministro de Defensa del país. Su promesa: “Recuperar la seguridad, el orden y la tranquilidad será nuestra prioridad”, escribió en un comunicado . “Colombia volverá a vivir sin miedo”.

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Grateful to lead the U.S. delegation in Colombia for the inauguration of President Abelardo De La Espriella. Yesterday was the start of a new friendship and partnership working as a team in the fight against drug trafficking and furthering our relationship in countering threats… https://t.co/kKfM0BFJkD pic.twitter.com/AKLfzUPiFp

— Acting AG Todd Blanche (@DAGToddBlanche) August 8, 2026

#𝐃𝐄𝐀 𝐀𝐝𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐃𝐄𝐀 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐀𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐨 𝐃𝐞 𝐋𝐚 𝐄𝐬𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚.

Read Full Statement:https://t.co/vPy6YeUtet@ABDELAESPRIELLA@TheJusticeDept… pic.twitter.com/ikCyXubx0Y

— DEA HQ (@DEAHQ) August 8, 2026

Con la firma de mi posesión como Ministro de Defensa reafirmo un compromiso que no admite dudas ni retrocesos: trabajar sin descanso por la seguridad de los colombianos y respaldar a nuestros soldados y policías.

La seguridad es una obligación, una decisión y una responsabilidad… pic.twitter.com/Kryoid7x4E

— General Jorge Mora (@generaljmora) August 8, 2026

The Sony-Marvel release has accrued $1.67 billion worldwide in just 10 days of release, putting it on a trajectory to be among the biggest blockbusters ever. Domestically, no movie has wracked up a higher total faster. In U.S. and Canadian cinemas, “Brand New Day” has grossed $655.1 million thus far. Overseas, it’s already surpassed $1 billion.

It took only seven days for “Brand New Day” to become the highest grossing movie of the year, easily displacing “Toy Story 5” ($1.07 billion worldwide). No Sony film has ever cleared $100 million in its second weekend before. It came close to toppling the best sophomore frame on record: “The Force Awakens,” with $149.2 million in 2015.

Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” also crossed $1 billion. In its fourth weekend, the Universal Pictures release added $31.5 million domestically to bring its global total to $1.1 billion.

Nolan’s Homeric epic is the director’s first movie to reach that threshold since 2012’s “The Dark Knight Rises.” It now ranks as Nolan’s biggest box-office hit ever, not accounting for inflation, eclipsing both “The Dark Knight Rises” ($1.08 billion) and 2009’s “The Dark Knight” ($1 billion). Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” ($975 million) ended just shy of the milestone.

A big part of that success, of course, has been on IMAX. With $147.3 million domestically on the company’s large-format screens, “The Odyssey” now ranks as IMAX’s highest grossing domestic release of all time.

“The Odyssey” still has one major market left. It opens in China on Friday.

“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and “The Odyssey” have helped drive Hollywood to its best box-office year since the pandemic. Ticket sales are running 18.5% ahead of last year, according to Rentrak. There have already been five $1 billion movies — more than any year since 2019. The other two were “Michael” and “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.”

Rentrak forecasts that the overall summer theatrical revenue will reach $4 billion on Monday. That seasonal mark has long been a sign of thriving business for Hollywood. Since the pandemic, the only summer to surpass $4 billion was 2023, when “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” drove ticket sales.

According to Rentrak, summer revenue is just $14.8 million shy of $4 billion through Sunday.

A pair of comedies tried to provide some counterprogramming to the blockbusters but made little impact.

“One Night Only,” a Will Gluck-directed romantic comedy where premarital sex is outlawed except for one night a year, opened with $5.7 million. The Universal release, starring Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner, cost about $25 million to make. Reviews weren’t good (46% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) but audience scores (a “B+” CinemaScore) were better.

Coming in fourth was Fox Searchlight’s “Super Troopers 3,” the third in the long-running comedy series from the comedy troupe Broken Lizard. It debuted with $4 million.

Two new limited releases packed theaters. A24's “Tony,” starring Dominic Sessa as a young Anthony Bourdain, grossed $348,955, good for one of the best screen-average openings of the year: $58,159 per theater. Mubi's “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma,” from “I Saw the TV Glow” filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun, debuted with a per-location average of $50,300 across five screens.

Top 10 movies by domestic box office

With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Rentrak:

1. “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” $145 million.

2. “The Odyssey,” $31.5 million.

3. “One Night Only,” $5.7 million.

4. “Super Troopers 3,” $4 million.

5. “Toy Story 5,” $3.9 million.

6. “Minions & Monsters,” $3.5 million.

7. “Moana,” $2.8 million.

8. “Ice Cream Man,” $2 million.

9. “The Invite,” $717,568.

10. CatVideoFest 2026, $568,414.

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It was located near the Griffin Road exit in Broward County, just south of Interstate 595.

Southbound traffic appeared to be merged down to one lane while first responders worked the scene.

Earlier in the morning, rescue crews were observed working to extinguish the blaze.

Authorities have not provided any information on the circumstances that led up to the fire, or if anyone was injured.

He joined host Glenna Milberg on the latest episode of “This Week in South Florida”, and their conversation can be seen at the top of this page.

As U.S. immigration agents staged at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building for a monthslong deportation campaign, protesters with whistles and cellphone cameras assembled to oppose them. Two were shot and killed in the city's streets before Trump pulled back under pressure.

Months later, those confrontations remain the backdrop to Minnesota's Democratic primary for U.S. Senate on Tuesday, which features establishment-backed U.S. Rep. Angie Craig and the more progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan. The immigration debate is an added schism in a race that otherwise echoes many of the other left versus center divides that have played out across the United States this year.

Craig voted for tighter enforcement soon after Trump returned to office last year, only to later express regret for her decision after the Republican president sent a surge of agents into Minneapolis. She backed a resolution that condemned antisemitism after a 2025 firebombing in Boulder, Colorado, and expressed thanks for law enforcement, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

Those votes may turn out to be some of the most fraught of Craig's eight-year career in Congress, decisions that Flanagan has highlighted while trying to portray her rival as unwilling to fight an unpopular administration in Washington.

“I think that’s when she lost my vote permanently and that’s why I will not vote for her no matter what," said Bryce Bohne, 40, of Minneapolis. The teacher and owner of an educational tourism company is supporting Flanagan.

Around the Whipple federal building, the fences and barriers are down. The ambient soundtrack is no longer the whistles and chants of protesters, just the rumble of departing jets and passing buses.

But the signs of what happened remain. A few volunteers in bright orange vests keep vigil across the street for 12-plus hours a day, ready to help people getting released from immigration detention or leaving hearings at the immigration court inside.

A few miles away, visitors still bring fresh flowers and handwritten notes to memorials marking the spots where Renee Good and Alex Pretti were killed.

Craig is no stranger to tough races, but until now the heat was from the right

Craig flipped a Republican-held seat in 2018, and every two years she overcame millions of dollars of attack ads to win tough reelection campaigns.

Until Craig's Senate run, the heat came from the right. Newly under fire from the other side, the decisions she made as a swing-seat congresswoman have become a liability as a statewide Senate candidate. At one recent event, she adopted the language of the insurgent left, though it did not always seem to come naturally.

“The working class keeps getting screwed,” she told volunteers preparing to knock on doors for her Saturday in Brooklyn Park, a Minneapolis suburb. “Folks, I don’t know about you, but it is time that we had a working folks reno— reso— renovation—"

Here, she took a breath.

"—revolution in this country.”

In Craig's view, she is well suited to the antiestablishment fervor gaining a foothold in the Democratic Party. Raised by a single mother in an Arkansas trailer park, she has known economic hardship. The lesbian mother of four grown children, she is not the archetype of a traditional member of Congress.

She was one of the House Democrats to call for President Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 race after his disastrous debate performance against Trump. As a relatively junior member of Congress, she pushed successfully to become the top Democrat on the Agriculture Committee, jumping ahead of long-tenured colleagues.

“I consider myself a progressive” she told reporters after her event Saturday. “Every race that I run, Republicans run ads against me saying I vote with Democrats 96, 97% of the time.”

“Of course, in the primary,” she added, “people want to point out the few votes I’ve taken against Democrats.”

‘I regret my vote,’ Craig wrote in a mea culpa

Chief among them was the Laken Riley Act, the first bill passed by Congress after Trump started his second term. It requires federal authorities to detain migrants accused of theft and violent crimes.

Craig and nearly 60 other Democrats in the House and Senate voted for the bill early in 2025.

But at the end of the year, as immigration officers descended on Minneapolis, that vote became a liability. Weeks after Good and Pretti were killed, Craig published a mea culpa in a Minnesota Star Tribune column.

Craig explained that although she had qualms with parts of the law, it had the support of Democrats she respected, and many of her constituents were unhappy with the situation on the border under Biden.

But the “outright occupation by aggressive, unaccountable federal forces” made clear to her “that supporting any bill that gives ICE new authority in this administration was the wrong decision. And I regret my vote."

Trump's immigration operation, she says, was not enabled by her vote on the Laken Riley Act.

“Before that, people had a little bit more sensibility about the fact she was in a tough district and had to take tough votes,” said Corey Day, former executive director of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.

Craig has since presented herself as a strong defender of Minnesotans against Trump. She says her record of winning tough races positions her to ensure the seat stays in Democratic hands.

“Angie has experience working across demographics that we need to win over statewide, including in rural Minnesota,” said Kevin Anderson, a Hennepin County commissioner who is supporting Craig and went to one of her weekend events. “I love Peggy, I really do, she’s a great politician. But I don’t think she’s ever had to work across Minnesota.”

Democratic Gov. Tim Walz has declined to endorse either candidate for the seat held by Democrat Tina Smith, who is not running again. Late last month his wife, Gwen Walz, endorsed Craig over Flanagan, his governing partner for two terms.

The Republican field includes Michele Tafoya, a former NFL sideline reporter.

Flanagan supporters are suspicious of Craig

To Flanagan and her supporters, Craig’s vote for the immigration bill was not a pragmatic overture to swing voters but a betrayal.

“My primary opponent voted for Donald Trump’s immigration bill and was the only Minnesota Democrat to do so,” Flanagan told volunteers in St. Paul on Saturday. “She since then has said that she regrets that vote, and I’m glad. But it shouldn’t have taken 14 months.”

“We can stand with the immigrant community and not just when it’s politically expedient for us,” Flanagan added.

Like Abdul El-Sayed, who won last week’s Democratic Senate primary in Michigan, Flanagan supports Medicare for All and wants to curtail U.S. military support for Israel. She is running as much against the donors who have spent millions of dollars backing Craig as she is against Craig herself.

“The fact that the money is coming from us and only us makes such a huge difference, because she’s beholden to us, not some billionaire with some business or crypto interest,” said 43-year-old Flanagan supporter Justin Ropella, a customer service manager from Woodbury.

Through July 22, Craig's campaign had spent $9 million and Flanagan's $5.5 million. The disparity was even higher among outside groups, with Craig backers spending considerably more, though both have benefited from an influx of outside spending.

To help make up the difference, Flanagan has called on the support of progressive champions such as Sen. Bernie Sanders the Vermont independent who campaigned with her last month.

“If the people of Minnesota can stand up -- and I’m confident that they can -- and tell these billionaires and their lies and their 30-second ads and their super PACs to go to hell, democracy is going to reign,” Sanders said.

El superintendente Howard Hepburn dice estar listo para que las clases arranquen el lunes.

“Estamos emocionados de recibir de nuevo a todos nuestros estudiantes”, afirmó. “Nuestros maestros ya regresaron. Están preparando los salones y alistándose para recibir a sus alumnos.”

El distrito escolar sigue enfrentando una matrícula estudiantil a la baja, lo que se traduce en menos fondos.

Las autoridades escolares señalan que los planes de estudio especializados marcarán la diferencia, entre ellos el programa de tecnología espacial y de aviación de Miramar High School.

En cuanto a la alimentación, casi 150 escuelas del distrito califican para ofrecer comidas gratis, y las familias de los planteles restantes pueden solicitar almuerzos a precio reducido.

“Teníamos un excedente de dinero gracias a subvenciones que recibimos por la COVID, y así pudimos dar de comer gratis a todos nuestros estudiantes”, dijo Elizabeth Seeley, de las Escuelas Públicas del Condado de Broward. “Pero ese excedente ya se está agotando.”

Aunque el precio del almuerzo completo subirá un dólar en todos los grados, todos los estudiantes podrán seguir disfrutando del desayuno gratis.

“Somos un distrito muy grande, con muchísimos estudiantes, y todos tienen gustos distintos, así que queremos asegurarnos de ofrecer una gran variedad”, señaló Seeley.

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Superintendent Howard Hepburn says he’s ready for classes to begin on Monday.

“We’re excited to welcome all our students back,” he said. “Our teachers are already back. They’re preparing classrooms and readying themselves to welcome their students.”

The school district continues to face dwindling numbers in student enrollment, which means less funding.

School leaders say specialized curriculum will make a difference, including the space and aviation technology program at Miramar High School.

When it comes to food offerings, nearly 150 district schools are qualified for free meals, and families at remaining schools can apply for reduced lunches.

“We had a surplus amount of money because of grants we received from COVID, and then we were able to have all of our students eat for free,” said Elizabeth Seeley with Broward County Public Schools. “But that surplus is now down.”

Even though full lunch prices will increase by $1 at all grade levels, all students can still enjoy breakfast for free.

“We are a very large district, and we have a lot of students, and all of them have different likes and dislikes and we want to be sure we’re offering a wide variety,” said Seeley.

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Jakey’s grieving parents, Karen and Orlando Duque, were pleading on Saturday that it be returned to the Jakey Duque Park in Miami Lakes.

“It’s priceless to us,” Karen Duque said about the sculpture crafted by Art & Sculpture Unlimited.

Jakey was 4 years old when he was diagnosed with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, or DIPG, a rare and highly aggressive brain tumor Oct. 11, 2019.

Jakey died on June 8, 2020. City officials unveiled the tribute, as part of a community effort, on May 8, 2021, at Northwest 154th Street and 89 Avenue.

“It means a lot to the community,” Orlando Duque said. “It means a lot to us, and we just would like it back ... If they want to come dead of night like they took it and drop it off that’s fine.”

Karen Duque said they don’t want to press any charges.

“We just want for it to be returned,” she said.

Related report

Louisiana has confirmed nine cases of Vibrio vulnificus infections this year, the state's health department said last week in a news release. All were hospitalized, and five died. During the same period over the previous decade, Louisiana reported an average of seven cases and one death.

“Seek medical care immediately if a wound exposed to brackish or salt water becomes red, swollen, painful, warm or discolored," officials said in the release. "Tell the health care provider about the water exposure.”

The Gulf is an ideal environment

Vibrio bacteria thrive in seawater and in the brackish mix of fresh and saltwater found in estuaries and lagoons. Most infections are reported from May to October, and most happen in states along the Gulf Coast. Doctors say the Gulf is an ideal environment with the right amounts of salt and heat to let this organism proliferate.

The mostly deadly type is Vibrio vulnificus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As many as one in five of those infections are fatal, a much higher rate than other types of Vibrio bacteria.

Florida, which tends to have more infections than other states, has reported 14 Vibrio vulnificus cases and two deaths so far this year, compared with 33 cases and five deaths for all of last year. Records show more cases in years when Florida is hit by tropical storms and hurricanes.

Bacteria enters through breaks in the skin

Some people become infected by eating raw or undercooked shellfish — particularly oysters. But a large percentage fall ill when the person is in ocean or brackish water and the bacteria enter the body through small breaks in the skin.

Doctors say severe cases are seen more often in elderly patients, people with weakened immune systems, and those with liver disease, diabetes and certain chronic illnesses.

Scientists say climate change is helping the germs proliferate and spread northward. A 2023 study found that the northernmost case has been shifting by about 30 miles each year, and that cases overall have been rising.

Beachgoers can protect themselves

Vibrio vulnificus can enter the body through unhealed cuts and scrapes, recent piercings and tattoos, and recent surgical incisions. People should immediately wash cuts and scrapes thoroughly with soap and clean running water after coming in contact with coastal waters or raw seafood, the CDC said. They should see a doctor if they start to develop symptoms such as fever, chills, and hot red areas on the skin that start to turn dark and blister.

Oysters are a particular risk, and there is no way to tell if an oyster is contaminated just by looking at it. People should wash hands with soap and water after handing raw shellfish and wear protective gloves if they have a weakened immune system and are at a higher risk of infection.

Health officials also offer cooking instructions for clams, mussels and other shellfish. They recommend throwing away any with open shells before boiling or steaming.

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It happened Saturday night in the area of the 6900 block of Southwest 26th Street in Miramar.

According to police, the brothers got into an argument when one of them pulled out a pocket knife and stabbed the other.

Authorities said the victim was rushed to Memorial Regional Hospital with injuries considered non-life-threatening.

Miramar police said a Broward Sheriff’s Office helicopter and Pembroke Pines police K9 units assisted in locating the suspect, who has yet to be identified.

Police said the suspect was taken into custody without further incident.

Un hombre está bajo custodia luego de que, según la policía, apuñalara a su hermano tras una discusión entre ambos.

El hecho ocurrió la noche del sábado en las inmediaciones de la cuadra 6900 de la calle 26 del suroeste, en Miramar.

De acuerdo con la policía, los hermanos discutían cuando uno de ellos sacó una navaja y apuñaló al otro.

Las autoridades informaron que la víctima fue trasladada de urgencia al Memorial Regional Hospital con heridas que no se consideran de gravedad.

La policía de Miramar señaló que un helicóptero de la Oficina del Sheriff de Broward y unidades caninas de la policía de Pembroke Pines ayudaron a localizar al sospechoso, quien aún no ha sido identificado.

La policía indicó que el sospechoso fue detenido sin mayores incidentes.

Hudson-Smith spoke Sunday at a press conference ahead of the European championships in Birmingham, England, and addressed four-time Olympic champion Michael Johnson's comments, in an interview with the Telegraph, that he had now “been able to get these athletes paid.”

Johnson formed the league by providing star athletes with salaries and appearance fees to compete on a four-event circuit in 2025. There also was prize money at each race but the series was cut short when Grand Slam Track canceled its final meet last June in Los Angeles.

“I’m going to be real, I have a memory like a fish, so I can’t remember what’s going on,” said Britain's Hudson-Smith, a two-time European champion in the 400 meters

A filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware in January listed Hudson-Smith as being owed $147,500.

“This whole year, I’ve been just focused on Europeans. Grand Slam, I don’t know if I’ve been paid, to be honest with you, and you can quote that,” said the 31-year-old Hudson-Smith, who won silver in the 400 at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The court filing listed more than 300 people and companies owed some $40 million. Eric Edwards Jr., a lesser-known hurdler, was on the list and told The Associated Press in January that the money was earmarked for practical needs like paying rent.

Johnson told the Telegraph that he's spent the past year finding solutions for the athletes.

“Everybody's been paid — $11 million for three track meets — more money than has ever been paid to track athletes to compete,” Johnson said.

A note on the bottom of the Telegraph's video interview of Johnson said: “Johnson raised $11m to pay athletes but some of that is held in escrow and still in the process of being distributed.”

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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

Coach Becky Hammon rested her top three players because the Aces were playing the second half of a difficult back-to-back after losing in Minnesota on Saturday.

“My players' health is the most important," Hammon said after the game. “You got to be healthy and fresh as much as possible, obviously, after going through a season. So, the health and safety of players come first. Where we end up (in the standings), we end up.”

Hammon felt resting her top players could help the team on the back end of the schedule because all three will be taking part in the FIBA World Cup next month, so they won't be getting any rest when the WNBA goes on break next month for a few weeks.

“I’m not going to put them in any kind of jeopardy to get hurt when we’ve been expending a lot of energy on travel and a lot of miles back and forth crisscrossing the country,” Hammon said.

The necessity to rest the trio happened because of a brutal schedule. After the loss to Minnesota, the team didn't arrive at its hotel in New York until nearly 10 p.m. after making the almost 1,200-mile trek from Minneapolis.

“I mean, everybody has a brutal schedule at some point. I don’t even think they do this in the NBA, though, where it’s less than 24 hours,” Hammon said. “With the time change, it ends up being that.”

The NBA, like the WNBA, actually won't make a team travel two times zones or have less than 22 hours between games if it’s playing consecutive days, according to a person familiar with scheduling. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about it.

Sunday’s game against the Liberty was on ABC and had a 12:30 p.m. EDT tipoff because the network was showing the Little League Softball World Series championship game afterward.

The early tipoff meant an early wake up and arriving at the arena less than 12 hours after the Aces got to their hotel.

Sunday's contest capped a five-game road trip for the Aces that started last Saturday in Chicago. The Aces lost that game and then went on to rout Atlanta. A stop in Indiana on Thursday ended with an overtime victory by Las Vegas thanks to buzzer-beating 3-pointers by Gray at the end of regulation and overtime.

Now the Aces head home for five straight games in Las Vegas.

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

Weston City Attorney Jamie Cole joined host Glenna Milberg on the latest episode of “This Week in South Florida”, and their conversation can be seen at the top of this page.

He joined host Glenna Milberg on the latest episode of “This Week in South Florida”, and their conversation can be seen at the top of this page.

It was her toughest moment of the day after an ultra-dominant performance on the bike from the 2023 champion.

She secured an impressive stage win, and in doing so extended her overall lead over Polish rider Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney to 1 minute, 18 seconds clear of the 2024 champion.

Vollering raised her bike in the air moments after crossing the finish line in Nice. Niewiadoma-Phinney had started Sunday’s ninth and final stage only eight seconds behind Vollering, who got a time bonus for winning it.

Finally, as the Dutch anthem ended, a lone tear trickled down the side of Vollering's face. A few more soon followed as her achievement hit home.

“It’s not only the dream of winning the Tour de France. It’s also the dream of living this life, of working hard along with passionate people," the 29-year-old Vollering said. “It all starts with dreaming. Go chase the dreams and don’t let anyone stop you."

Nobody could on Sunday.

Knowing that she was well clear, Vollering began to celebrate as the line approached, raising her arm in triumph and then tapping her head with her finger to show her mental strength.

“I was thinking about a lot of things as I was approaching the finish line. I thought that I had never won in the yellow jersey before,” Vollering said. “I thought about how much work has gone into this victory. I thought about the people who have been behind me.”

She finished the stage 1 minute, 4 seconds ahead of Spaniard Paula Blasi Cairol and Niewiadoma-Phinney, who looked tired but was all smiles later on the podium.

Former Giro d’Italia champion Elisa Longo Borghini of Italy was third overall in the Tour — 4:29 behind — after Marlen Reusser lost valuable time after crashing going downhill after the second of the day’s four climbs.

Reusser ended up 14th overall at nearly 26 minutes behind.

Vollering attacks

Niewiadoma-Phinney had it all to do on the final climb, especially with her rival sitting on her wheel, and was unable to pressure Vollering.

Vollering attacked about 800 meters from the top and dropped Niewiadoma-Phinney — as she did when winning Saturday’s eighth stage to take the overall lead from her rival.

Two years ago, Vollering missed out on Tour victory after finishing an agonizing four seconds behind Niewiadoma-Phinney on the last stage.

She made full amends this time.

Vollering has now won five Grand Tours, including two Spanish Vuelta titles and the Giro d’Italia secured in June to join countrywoman Annemiek van Vleuten as the only other female cyclist to have won all three Grand Tours.

“I still have a lot of dreams," Vollering said. "On and off the bike.”

Four climbs

Each of the first three climbs on Sunday was 7.7 kilometers long with a 5.9% average gradient. But the final ascent branched off onto a slightly different route which, even though it was shorter at 6 kilometers, had a steeper average gradient of 7.6% with one portion stretching to a grueling 12%.

It made little difference.

After winning Friday’s seventh stage with an impressive solo attack of her own up the iconic Mont Ventoux, Niewiadoma-Phinney seemed short of energy and Vollering’s lead was never under threat.

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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

La mañana del domingo, en Palmetto Bay, un grupo de negocios locales y organizaciones sin fines de lucro se unió para aliviar esa carga y ofreció de todo —desde útiles escolares hasta cortes de cabello— completamente gratis.

El evento se realizó en la barbería The Cut Stop, ubicada en el 9853 E Fern St., donde se recibió a estudiantes desde kínder hasta duodécimo grado para entregarles mochilas, útiles escolares, kits de higiene y otros artículos esenciales.

Los asistentes también disfrutaron de cortes de cabello y trenzado gratis, además de exámenes físicos deportivos, vales para orientación psicológica, servicios de cejas y otros recursos.

En total, 13 negocios y organizaciones sin fines de lucro colaboraron en el evento del domingo.

Los organizadores dijeron que la meta es que los estudiantes lleguen al nuevo año escolar sintiéndose preparados y seguros de sí mismos, en especial los jóvenes atendidos por LSF Miami Bridge Youth & Family Services.

La organización administra refugios de emergencia para niños que enfrentan situaciones de trauma o inestabilidad, lo que convierte el inicio del año escolar en un reto aún mayor para algunas familias.

El-Sayed said his Friday conversation with Obama was “really warm and inspiring." The candidate did not provide details.

“I was grateful for his advice. It was very warm, very inviting, and I know that he knows the critical role that Michigan is going to play,” El-Sayed told NBC’s “Meet the Press."

Asked if he would like to see Obama come to Michigan to drum up support for Democrats before the midterm elections in November, El-Sayed said he “really” hoped so and that Obama “knows a lot about winning Michigan” after carrying the state in the 2008 and 2012 presidential races.

An Obama spokesperson confirmed the call.

The discussion came the same day that a group of Michigan nominees and other notable national Democrats tried to present a united front at a rally in Detroit. The crowd cheered loudest for El-Sayed, a former public health official who last week narrowly beat establishment-backed U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens in a contentious and closely watched primary. A Democratic victory in the fall is crucial to the party's chances of regaining a Senate majority.

Democratic Sen. Gary Peters is not seeking reelection in the perennial swing state, which Republican Donald Trump won in 2016 and 2024, while Democrat Joe Biden carried in 2020.

El-Sayed faces Republican Mike Rogers, a former congressman who narrowly lost the Senate race to Democrat Elissa Slotkin in 2024 and has tried to capitalize on lingering tensions within the Democratic Party.

Rogers has released a video message attempting to appeal to Democrats who feel their party may be moving too far to the left with El-Sayed. “You have a home with us," Rogers says in the video.

During an interview Sunday with CNN's “State of the Union,” El-Sayed acknowledged that "we aired our differences” in the heated primary. But he said the internal divisions are "so much smaller than the similarities that we share.”

“You’re seeing folks come together,” El-Sayed said, before adding of moderate Democrats, “We might see the world differently. But we also recognize the responsibility to come together.”

Irvin’s Playmaker Production is launching “Fetching Fletchers,” which will document Linda Fletcher’s journey on the road in a custom-themed RV that Irvin gifted to her.

“My heart just opened wide up,” Linda Fletcher said. “I started crying for sure.”

Irvin said the series is about more than football — it’s about family and the bond within the Miami Hurricanes community.

“Yeah, it’s a beautiful feeling, beautiful thing,” he said. “We always talk about family, and that’s what this is about. That’s what the U is about, it’s the U family, and that extends everywhere.”

Irvin, who played at Miami before a Hall of Fame NFL career, said the Hurricanes have developed a strong community among the families of their players.

“And the greatest part about this is, when we were here, we really didn’t have like a mom’s coalition, you know what I mean?” Irvin said. “And to have that, that’s why we got such great players. These guys are great, great guys.”

“I’m talking about, yeah, they’re great, great football players, but these are great, great people,” Irvin continued. “And that’s why we have to highlight that.”

Fletcher said she was already committed to following her son on the road, but the series gives her an opportunity to encourage other mothers to support their children.

Here's what Linda Fletcher and Michael Irvin had to say about her new ride to watch her son play this season pic.twitter.com/r7atzIciwn

— David Lang (@Dukielang) August 8, 2026

“I was gonna do it anyways, but the blessing of being able to do it like this, it’s just very amazing and I just would love to inspire other moms go the long way with your child, especially those ones that are doing the right thing and being great,” Linda Fletcher said. “And so yeah, I’m fully on board like I always say and I’m just excited to get behind the wheel and get going.”

Click here for more information on the web series.

Very cool story out front at UM. Michael Irvin’s Playmaker Production Company is launching "Fetching Fletchers” series. It will follow Linda Fletcher to attend every one her son Mark Fletcher Jr.'s games for the Canes. The cameras will be on the road in this custom-themed RV. pic.twitter.com/WfXakURa69

— Will Manso (@WillManso) August 8, 2026

On Sunday morning in Palmetto Bay, a group of local businesses and nonprofits teamed up to take some of that pressure off, providing everything from school supplies to haircuts, all for free.

The event was held at The Cut Stop barbershop, located at 9853 E Fern St., were students in kindergarten through 12th grade were welcomed to receive backpacks, school supplies, hygiene kits and other essentials.

They’re also being treated to free haircuts and hair braiding, along with sports physicals, counseling vouchers, brow services, and other resources.

In all, 13 local businesses and nonprofits contributed to Sunday’s event.

Organizers said the goal is to make sure students walk into the new school year feeling prepared and confident, especially young people served by LSF Miami Bridge Youth & Family Services.

The group operates emergency shelters for children dealing with trauma or instability, making the start of a new school year an even bigger challenge for some families.

The 22-foot Bayliner speedboat overturned around 10:25 p.m. Saturday near Liberty Island, home to the Statue of Liberty, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

Twelve people were rescued from the water before police arrived, and police divers later located the 27-year-old woman and 5-month-old girl in the water. Both were taken to a hospital where they were pronounced dead. According to the Coast Guard, the others were in stable condition.

“We are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life last night, and our thoughts are with the victims’ family and loved ones during this incredibly difficult time,” said Capt. Doreen McCarthy, the Coast Guard Sector New York commander. “We are extremely grateful for the heroic, swift actions of our partner agencies and Good Samaritan vessel who assisted in rescuing survivors from the water.”

Manuel Hernandez, 46, of New York, has been charged with 13 counts of reckless endangerment, police said. No phone number for him could be found Sunday, and the case has not yet been entered into online court records.

The victims' identities have not been released pending notification of family, police said Sunday.

Adam Schwartz said his sightseeing company's hot tub boat, Sea the City II, was out on a cruise when the accident occurred and took the 12 survivors onboard.

“Our captain and both crew members immediately assisted, called in to the Coast Guard and ... then coordinated with the Coast Guard and NYPD Harbor units to bring them to land in Brooklyn,” Schwartz told The Associated Press on Sunday.

McCarthy said Coast Guard investigators are working with police to investigate and are committed to holding lawbreakers accountable. According to the Coast Guard, an illegal charter is any passenger-for-hire vessel operation that lacks Coast Guard credentials, safety equipment and inspection certificates.

Other than a few passing showers this morning, I don’t expect any cooling showers or storms today so stay hydrated and get in the air conditioning as often as possible.

Rain chances are well below normal through the upcoming week only in the 20% range each day as a plume of Saharan dust arrives and dries things out.

The “dog days” are definitely here however with highs into the middle 90s this week so it’ll be hot and humid for back to schoolers! Watch out for a high risk of rip currents at the beaches today.

The Irish Air Corps plane carrying Daniel Kinahan, 49, landed at an airport on the outskirts of Dublin on Sunday evening after courts in Dubai refused to block his extradition.

Kinahan was taken to the Special Criminal Court in Dublin where he was charged with directing the activities of a criminal organization. He was ordered to remain in custody at the high-security Portlaoise Prison about 90 miles (145 kilometers) southwest of the capital. His next court appearance is scheduled for Oct. 5.

Ireland’s Special Criminal Court handles all organized crime and terrorism cases, as well as others where prosecutors believe the ordinary courts are inadequate to ensure the “effective administration of justice.” Cases are heard by a panel of three judges without a jury.

Large security operation for Kinahan's transfer to Dublin

Irish media reported that a huge security operation was underway to ensure Kinahan faces justice. It included armed police, members of the armed forces and the prison service — which recently acquired a bombproof escort van to transport organized crime suspects, terrorists and other high-risk prisoners, Irish broadcaster RTE reported.

The security precautions came after Kinahan's family members were linked to a bloody gang war with another Irish organized crime group. U.S. authorities said in 2022 that the feud had resulted in 18 murders as they announced a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the disruption of the Kinahan organization or the arrest and conviction of Daniel Kinahan.

“Since February 2016, the (Kinahan Organized Crime Group) has been involved in a gang war with another group in Ireland and Spain, resulting in numerous murders, including of two innocent bystanders,” the U.S. Treasury Department said when it sanctioned six members of the Kinahan gang and three businesses linked to it.

Irish police, with the help of authorities in Britain, Spain and the U.S., have been pursuing members of the Kinahan gang since at least 2016, when the feud led to a daytime shooting during the weigh-in for a boxing match at a Dublin hotel. Kinahan was a boxing promoter at the time.

The authorities allege the gang smuggled tens of millions of dollars in illegal drugs, including cocaine and cannabis, as well as guns into Europe, then used a network of apparently legitimate enterprises to launder the profits.

‘Large quantities of cocaine’ from South America

Kinahan is believed to have run the day-to-day operations of the gang from his base in Dubai, the U.S. Treasury said. That includes buying “large quantities of cocaine” from South America, organizing its distribution in Ireland and attempting to smuggle drugs into the U.K., Treasury said.

Kinahan has also instructed gang members to deliver money to a number of people in prison, including one who was convicted of attempting to murder someone on behalf of the organization, the agency said.

He was detained by Dubai authorities in April on an Irish arrest warrant.

During a phone interview with Scottish podcaster James English last week, Kinahan denied being an organized crime boss and described himself as the victim of a conspiracy to tarnish his reputation. While he said the extradition proceedings were expedited due to a deal between the Irish and Dubai governments, he said he hoped his trial in Dublin would help clear his name.

“I believe, in a way, I am a scapegoat,” he said in the interview posted on TikTok. "And anyone that looks into this so-called feud that they say they have created, then you will see, you will see things yourself if someone has the time to look into it.”

In March 2022, the head of the Kinahan organization in Britain, Thomas “Bomber” Kavanagh, was sentenced to 21 years in prison after he was convicted of orchestrating drug shipments into the U.K. Two other men were sentenced to 20 years and 19 1/2 years for their part in the crimes.

In the course of their investigation, police found 15 kilograms of cocaine and 220 kilograms of cannabis inside asphalt removal equipment fitted with a tracking device at the port of Dover on the English Channel, Britain’s National Crime Agency said when Kavanagh was sentenced.

Kavanagh lived in a mansion equipped with bulletproof glass and reinforced doors in Tamworth, northeast of Birmingham. When police raided the property in 2019 they seized numerous weapons and 35,000 pounds of cash in various currencies, including Emirati dirhams and euros, as well as British pounds, the crime agency said.

The landmark Mecca Joint Defense Agreement was signed on Friday by the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif as the three countries seek to deepen security cooperation amid heightened tensions between the United States and Iran.

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said Sunday the agreement was “purely defensive in nature” and that other countries could join if they were willing to uphold its principles and resolve differences through peaceful means, adding the deal reflected a shared desire to strengthen strategic security cooperation.

His post on X came a day after Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan similarly said the agreement was not aimed at Iran or any other country.

The agreement stipulates "that any armed attack against any one of the three states shall be regarded as an attack against them all,” according to statements released by the three sides. Dar said in his post the stipulation was consistent with the right of individual and collective self-defense under Article 51 of the U.N. Charter.

Pakistan, he said, would continue working with countries across the region toward lasting peace and stability.

“The Makkah Accord does not abrogate or replace any existing bilateral or multilateral agreements between these countries, or with other countries or organizations,” he wrote.

His comments followed overnight public celebrations of the agreement. Landmarks in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad and Saudi cities were illuminated in the colors of the Saudi, Turkish and Pakistani flags.

The three countries bring significant but differing capabilities to the arrangement. Pakistan has extensive military experience and is the Muslim world’s only nuclear-armed country; Saudi Arabia brings substantial economic resources and regional influence; and NATO member Turkey has a large military and an increasingly sophisticated domestic defense industry.

In Islamabad, defense analysts cautioned against viewing the agreement as the equivalent of NATO, despite its collective-defense provision. Abdullah Khan, an Islamabad-based defense analyst, said that although the agreement was signed during a period of heightened regional tensions, it should not be interpreted as being directed against Iran or another country.

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have maintained close military ties for decades and signed a separate mutual-defense agreement in September 2025. Pakistan and Turkey also have expanded military and defense-industrial cooperation in recent years

The confirmation announced on Saturday eased concerns that the rare Bundibugyo virus might spread to the Congolese capital.

More than 200 boat passengers were placed in quarantine on Thursday in the port of Maluku, 65 kilometers (40 miles) from Kinshasa, after one traveler who was previously aboard the boat died with symptoms matching the Ebola virus.

Specialist teams from the Ministry of Health were deployed to Maluku to examine all of those on board. Those exhibiting suspicious symptoms had samples taken and sent to a laboratory for analysis, the ministry said on Saturday, adding that the vessel was also decontaminated.

The National Institute of Biomedical Research, which is responsible for testing, said that all suspected cases tested negative for Bundibugyo. It urged the population of Kinshasa to remain calm.

Congo has been battling an Ebola outbreak that has been deemed the fastest in history in terms of transmission, with confirmed cases since it started in May reaching 4,200, including over 1,900 deaths.

The river boat passenger had become sick and disembarked nearly three weeks ago in Pimu, in the province of Mongala, more than 1,000 kilometers from Kinshasa along the Congo River, Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya said on Thursday. The capital has no confirmed Ebola case, he added.

News of the passenger’s death caused panic in Kinshasa, which is far from the eastern region hit by the outbreak, the second-largest outbreak on record, behind the 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak that recorded more than 28,000 cases, including over 11,000 deaths.

Ebola is highly contagious and spreads through contact with bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen, and with contaminated surfaces and materials such as bedding and clothing.

Health authorities say between 60% and 70% of new cases in the current outbreak are recorded outside of contacts being monitored, and that the outbreak is spreading at an “alarming” rate faster than efforts to track it.

The medical charity Doctors Without Borders said this week that the outbreak is still “spreading at an alarming and unprecedented rate” and that the response, which has been expanding, “is still not reaching communities quickly enough to break transmission chains.”

The meteor shower's peak Wednesday night into Thursday morning coincides with a total solar eclipse across Spain, Iceland and Greenland and a six-planet parade — though the best time to view the fireballs will come after totality.

As many as 50 to 100 meteors per hour may be visible under ideal conditions, according to NASA. The American Meteor Society estimates 30 to 50 meteors per hour could be seen from rural regions.

Random meteors are visible in dark skies on any given night. Meteor showers tend to put on dazzling celestial shows and happen at predictable times every year when the Earth plows through trails of debris left behind by comets and, sometimes, asteroids. Those remnants collide with Earth’s atmosphere at extremely high speeds, producing streaks of light known as shooting stars.

The Perseids are debris from comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, an icy ball that orbits the sun every 133 years and isn't scheduled for a return visit until 2125. Observations of this meteor shower date back over 2,000 years.

The Perseids are a perennial favorite because they tend to produce brilliant fireballs. Summer temperatures also make this shower popular.

“We don't have to suffer through a cold winter night to get a good view of meteors,” said astronomer Zach Vanderbosch with McDonald Observatory in Texas.

The moon will be in its new moon phase during the Perseids' peak, making viewing conditions even better.

“The moon is beautiful, but it’s such a diva,” said astronomer Aparna Venkatesan with the University of San Francisco. “New moon means we don’t have moonlight flooding the sky, and you tend to see way more meteors as a result.”

To spot the meteors, go outside after dark, away from clouds and city lights. Venkatesan plans to drive to the Sierra Nevada.

The best views will be between midnight and dawn when the constellation Perseus is high in the northern sky. The meteors will appear to radiate from that constellation.

Look up and give your eyes a half hour to adjust to the darkness. Vanderbosch recommends picking a patch of sky to focus on until a quick, bright streak passes by — even in your peripheral vision — and to avoid looking at your phone.

“There's just something magical about it,” Vanderbosch said.

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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.

“None of these folks are represented,” she said.

Chohan is the coordinator of a program that sends volunteer lawyers to immigration courts to assist people without representation and help them navigate the complicated legal system where the stakes are a future in America or deportation.

Appearing without a lawyer opens up even greater risk under the second Trump administration, with the courts playing a key role in its mass deportation agenda. Courts are increasingly denying asylum, deportation officers have arrested immigrants in court hallways, the administration has packed courtrooms to cut backlogs and reduced lead time on hearings, prompting people to miss them.

Data shows that legal representation can be vital to winning in court but many immigrants, unable to pay for a private lawyer or find a pro bono one, navigate the system without an attorney at their side.

“Folks go into immigration court not knowing what’s happening. They come out not knowing what's happening. And when there’s an attorney present," Chohan said, “it’s just so helpful.”

Immigrants aren’t provided an attorney but legal help makes a difference

Unlike criminal court, there is no guaranteed lawyer in immigration courts.

Immigrants have to hire one at a cost of thousands of dollars or hope to get represented by one of the nonprofit organizations assisting low-income immigrants. But waitlists with those organizations are long, and many parts of the country just do not have that many immigration attorneys.

Of the roughly 3.2 million pending deportation cases currently in U.S. immigration courts, people in 52% of those cases do not have a lawyer, according to an analysis of immigration court data by the Vera Institute of Justice, a think tank.

A Congressional Research Service study from 2024 found that only 19% of people who did not have a lawyer won asylum or another avenue to stay in the United States. Among those who did have a lawyer, 47% were successful.

“Having an attorney is just super critical to be able to navigate the system successfully,” said Adriel Orozco of the advocacy group American Immigration Council.

Chohan said she frequently runs into people who have been scammed by lawyers or people posing as lawyers who take their money but do nothing for their case.

“I will give him a list of attorneys who are free and we have vetted,” she told one man who said he was scammed. “They have long waitlists but he should still ask.”

Speaking later to The Associated Press, the man described how he left Guatemala after being threatened by gangs and came to the U.S. in 2024 seeking asylum. Ever since, he said he has done everything that has been asked of him while he tries to make ends meet, occasionally painting houses. He spent $4,500 on a lawyer who in the end did nothing to help him, he said.

“He turned out to be a scammer,” said the man, who did not want to be identified for fear of endangering his case. He is worried about what comes next in court after being warned by the judge that he could be deported. “I don’t know what I’m going to do,” he said.

A nonstop day of consulting with clients, shuttling back and forth into court

Outside the Sacramento building where the court is housed is a long line of immigrants waiting for appointments with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is in the same building. Volunteers with a local anti-ICE resistance group stand ready to help.

Upstairs, two immigration judges are on the bench. One hears the in-depth individual cases of immigrants who are pursuing their claim of asylum.

The other judge has the master calendar docket, where dozens of immigrants will appear in brief hearings geared at making sure their case is ready to go to the next step.

Signs taped to the wall remind people not to videotape or record inside the court complex. A security guard makes sure no one loiters in the hallways. Most people clutch stacks of papers documenting their cases.

After immigrants file into the courtroom for their hearings, Judge Susan Phan introduces Chohan and describes the services her organization offers.

“You are not required to meet with her but it is a rare opportunity that we have someone volunteering their time,” Phan said before launching into the day's work.

The need for a detailed asylum application

Chohan, who works with the California Immigration Project, starts each hearing in the courtroom. She has a clipboard to take notes, extra copies of forms and a crate of books for restless children attending court with their parents. She spends the bulk of her time in the waiting room, talking to immigrants after their hearings and scanning their documents to flesh out what else they need.

Speaking to one young man from Mexico, she asks to see his asylum application, noting that the judge had pointed out that it was not that detailed.

“Sometimes judges can deny a claim if there isn’t enough detail,” she said through one of the organization's volunteer translators.

The organization frequently has clinics to help immigrants fill out their asylum application. Chohan said she will alert him to the next one.

Another woman holding a stack of documents is there with her son and wanted to make sure her children could come with her if she is deported. Chohan also briefed her on what to expect at her upcoming asylum hearing and said the organization will send her an asylum filing guide.

Chohan highlighted places on forms where people need to give answers or answer in more detail. It’s OK to write “none” but she advises them to not leave boxes blank.

Everything submitted in Spanish must be accompanied by a translation into English that must be done by a person, not an automatic online translator. Copies of every single page of a passport must be submitted. Documents must be sent in two weeks before the applicant’s hearing so the judge can review them.

Over and over, Chohan reminds immigrants to download their receipt showing they paid the $102 asylum application fee so they can submit it to the court.

Chohan said a lot of these procedures and forms are discussed in court but it is happening so fast and immigrants are listening through a translator that they do not always understand what is happening.

“A lot of times when they go into court, they’re just happy that they’re out of court and they’re not being arrested,” she said.

A changing immigration court system

Chohan has witnessed the upheaval in the immigration courts during Republican President Donald Trump's second term.

She was in the court hallways last summer when ICE officers waited to arrest immigrants after their hearings. Earlier this summer she watched as the administration started holding “mega masters,” hearings with dozens of respondents at a time that are meant to clear a backlog but have created chaos.

Chohan said there are not enough pro bono lawyers in the Sacramento area to help everyone who needs one so the “Attorney of the Day” program is often the next best thing. She believes everyone should have access to a lawyer.

Until that day, she said, the program "helps bridge that gap.”

Large-scale Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian cities have become almost routine in recent weeks, with Moscow exploiting Ukraine’s critical shortage of interceptors for the U.S.-made Patriot systems — the sole air defense weapon in its arsenal able to shoot down ballistic missiles.

In the latest attacks, Ukrainian drones killed five people and injured two dozen others, including a 4-year-old boy, in Russia’s border region of Belgorod, according to the regional administration.

In Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, Russian missiles struck a high-rise apartment block in the Saltivskyi district, killing two people and injuring 13, according to regional head Oleh Syniehubov. Eight more people were injured in Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa after “dozens of missiles and drones” struck the city and surrounding region, according to local administration head Oleh Kiper.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has for months lobbied other countries, especially the U.S., to send Ukraine more Patriot systems made scarcer by the Iran war, arguing they are crucial for defending civilians.

Failing that, Zelenskyy wants to make Patriot ammunition in Ukraine or get approval from Elon Musk to use his Starlink satellite communications system to guide strikes inside Russia that can hit its missile launchers.

Meanwhile, Kyiv has kept up long-range drone strikes against Russian energy infrastructure, as well as the country’s largest online retailer, Wildberries, and other targets deep inside Russia, sparking a fuel crisis.

Russia’s defense ministry on Sunday claimed its overnight strikes hit drone warehouses in the Kharkiv region, as well as fuel depots and stores of other materiel belonging to Ukraine’s armed forces at the port of Odesa.

It said its forces had shot down 153 Ukrainian drones during the night, including over Russian-occupied Crimea and the Black and Azov seas.

In Russia's Belgorod region, authorities said Ukrainian drone strikes damaged 29 apartment blocks and five private houses, as well as administrative buildings and unspecified “commercial facilities.”

Debris from Ukrainian drones also fell on two enterprises and a private home in the Russian city of Novorossiysk, mayor Andrey Kravchenko said on Sunday. He did not specify what the commercial sites were. Regional authorities later said falling debris had injured one person, damaged two private houses, and blew out a window in an apartment block.

A major fuel terminal is located at Novorossiysk that links Kazakhstan's oil fields to markets around the world, and which has previously been a target for Ukrainian strikes.

Moldova says blast near Ukraine border caused by drone

A “powerful explosion” believed to be from a combat drone was reported in the village of Crocmaz, in southeast Moldova near the border with Ukraine, local police said Sunday.

No one was injured by the impact, which caused a vegetation fire in the Stefan Voda district, police said, adding that “fragments of a combat drone were found at the scene” and would be examined by specialists. Police did not specify the origin of the drone.

Multiple drones have violated Moldovan airspace since Russia launched its full-scale war in neighboring Ukraine.

Bulgaria summons Ukrainian ambassador over drone incident

Bulgaria has summoned Ukraine's ambassador after a drone entered Bulgarian airspace, the country's public broadcaster BNT reported on Sunday.

The drone exploded on Saturday close to an international gas pipeline shortly after crossing the border from Romania. No casualties or damage were reported.

Bulgaria's defense ministry said the drone appeared to be the type used by Ukrainian armed forces, and that the incident was likely accidental.

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi said the incident was being examined, but that it did not deliberately target Bulgaria. Ukraine and Bulgaria were in “close contact” to clarify what had happened, he added.

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AP writer Stephen McGrath contributed from Leamington Spa, England.

“We couldn’t let them in because we were so full,” Chairman Jacob Keyes said. “That’s a direct impact from the Harrah’s name.”

But a vacancy in Washington is preventing the tribe’s partnership with the gambling giant from moving beyond branding. Plans for Harrah’s parent company to take over day-to-day management of the casino in Chandler, Oklahoma, stalled after it opened in April, because no one is at the helm of the federal commission that oversees tribal gambling.

The last chairperson of the National Indian Gaming Commission stepped down from the role in January. President Donald Trump has not nominated anyone to fill the vacancy. Absent a chair, the commission is unable to perform some key responsibilities, like enforcing legal and safety violations, approving new tribal gambling laws and certifying management agreements between tribes and casino operators.

Industry leaders say the agency's inertia risks delaying business deals, weakening oversight and leaving tribes without a key advocate in Washington as they grapple with an emerging threat posed by online prediction markets.

“At this crucial time, the (National Indian Gaming Commission) is operating with one arm tied behind its back,” said Jonodev Chaudhuri, a former NIGC chair from 2013 to 2019 and a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. “That’s a very precarious position for tribes and Indian gaming."

There’s a lot at stake for tribes that rely heavily on casino revenue to fund healthcare, housing, education and other vital services. Tribal gambling brought in a record $46 billion in 2025, nearly triple the annual casino revenue of gambling powerhouse Nevada.

The commission's core powers are vested in its chair

With its Harrah’s contract stuck in limbo, the Iowa Tribe’s small government staff finds itself managing the 175,000-square-foot (16,258 square-meter) casino, a mammoth task it had intended to outsource.

“It’s discouraging. We’re paying a fee and not getting the full value,” Keyes said.

The decision to outsource management was strategic: Harrah's branding would bring in more business than existing staff could accommodate. Instead, staff has to balance management with other priorities like preparing tribal budgets and overseeing social programs, Keyes said.

The three-member gaming commission was formed in 1988 to regulate casino-style gambling and promote economic development on tribal lands. Some 250 tribal governments across 29 states now operate 545 gambling facilities, the commission said.

Under federal law, its enforcement powers are vested solely in the chairperson. Industry leaders say its inability to cite casinos for violating federal law or force the emergency closure of unsafe facilities is particularly troubling.

In a typical year, the commission issues several citations to tribes for operating casinos on unauthorized lands, failing to submit required financial statements, misusing revenues and other violations. The commission's last enforcement action was issued on Jan. 12 — the same day acting chairperson Sharon Avery's term expired. She remains on the commission.

The commission declined an interview request and said in an emailed statement that tribal officials and its field staff provide “excellent regulation" amid the leadership gap. But Steven Light, an expert in tribal gambling law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said the lack of enforcement power could discourage investment in tribal gambling and slow business growth.

“Markets function best when there's stability and certainty around processes and rules,” Light said.

Prediction markets have emerged as a new threat to tribal gaming

The commission vacancy comes as the popularity of online prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket explodes. Tribal leaders fear those platforms, which allow users to wager on the outcome of virtually any event, could violate their sovereignty and take a bite out of gambling revenue.

“Every dollar generated by Indian gaming goes to fund healthcare for our people, education for our children, housing for our elders,” said David Bean, chairman of the Indian Gaming Association and a citizen of the Puyallup Tribe.

At least eight tribes have sued prediction market platforms, alleging they accept bets from tribal lands and in states where tribes have exclusive gambling rights in violation of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which the gaming commission is tasked with enforcing.

Prediction markets argue their users are engaging in futures trading, not gambling, and dispute claims that they are circumventing regulation.

The commission chairperson typically serves as an advocate for the tribal gambling industry in Washington, according to former commissioners and staffers. Yet it's been conspicuously silent while the federal government weighs how to regulate prediction markets, said Joe Valandra, the commission’s chief of staff from 2005 to 2007 and a citizen of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe.

James Siva, who leads the California Nations Indian Gaming Association and is vice chairman of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, said the Trump administration's support of and business ties to the prediction markets industry could explain why it hasn't filled the vacancy.

“These things are happening in conjunction with each other,” Siva said in April at a news conference with the Indian Gaming Association. “It is not a coincidence by any means.”

The leadership gap spans two administrations

The commission's last Senate-confirmed chairperson termed out under former President Joe Biden without a successor in place.

A White House spokesperson called the commission a “valued board” but did not say when a new nomination will be made.

In April, Trump appointed Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Billy Kirkland, a citizen of the Navajo Nation, to the commission. That's raised questions about potential executive branch influence over an agency designed to be independent.

“This crosses that threshold in an uncomfortable way,” said Shannon O’Loughlin, the commission’s chief of staff from 2015 to 2017 and a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.

Keyes said a crucial opportunity to develop his tribe's economy hangs in the balance. He doesn't see the commission vacancy as partisan play.

“I don’t want to sound like sour grapes, but when have Native American issues ever been prioritized by the federal government?” he said.

Meanwhile, Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels struck a government-held port on the country’s Red Sea coast, deepening fears over threats to strategic shipping routes and a potential return to civil war.

Here’s a look at developments across the Middle East. Full coverage can be found here.

Netanyahu insists no Gaza withdrawal until Hamas disarms

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the deal on Gaza announced by Trump last month, saying Israel’s military “will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed.”

Netanyahu told a Cabinet meeting that “Israel rejects the 15-point document” but is still discussing plans for Gaza with Washington, after making similar comments last week. Trump had said Israeli forces would withdraw as the Hamas militant group’s disarmament is completed. Israeli forces control over half the Palestinian enclave of about 2 million people that's been largely destroyed.

There was no immediate White House comment on Netanyahu's statement.

“We remain committed to the road map,” said a member of the Hamas political bureau, Bassem Naim, adding that the group expects mediators and the U.S. to pressure Netanyahu — who also faces domestic tensions as he struggles to hold onto power ahead of the next elections scheduled for Oct. 27.

The Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, sparked the war in Gaza. A fragile ceasefire continues.

Houthis target Aramco refinery and Red Sea port

Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen attacked the government-held port city of Mocha late Sunday night. It was the second attack on the Red Sea coast city in less than 24 hours.

A Houthi military source told the Houthi-controlled Al-Masirah TV that the attack targeted weapons depots and Saudi troop concentrations.

A statement from the Yemeni Armed Forces posted on X said residential neighborhoods were targeted by ballistic missiles and drones in the attack, and that air defense systems managed to intercept some of the drones.

Drones and missiles were also used during the earlier attack on Sunday. The Yemeni government-allied National Resistance Forces said at least seven people — four troops and three civilians — were killed and 15 civilians were injured in that strike.

Fayed al-Noman, the information ministry’s assistant undersecretary, said the attack severely damaged port buildings and piers as well as commercial goods and food supplies. The military later said missiles landed in several areas, including near a television station.

Mocha is a main port under Yemen’s internationally recognized government and has been renovated to handle shipping that avoids the Houthi-held port of Hodeida.

The Houthis said they targeted military forces and warehouses.

Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesperson, said they also targeted an Aramco refinery in the Saudi city of Jazan with a drone in response to Saudi drones breaching Yemen’s airspace over Hajjah and Saada provinces.

The Saudi Energy Ministry reported a fire at a facility belonging to the Aramco refinery, with no casualties. The ministry did not say the cause. The attacks threaten to reignite Yemen’s civil war after a 2022 truce.

— Samy Magdy in Cairo

Iran's top security post changes again

Iran named a new head of its powerful Supreme National Security Council, state media reported. Mohsen Rezaei had been a military adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei and a former Revolutionary Guard commander.

It was the latest shuffle at the top for the politburo-like body, which has a range of political opinions and rivalries and is adapting to the loss of several senior officials in the war.

Rezaei replaces Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who took up the role after Ali Larijani was killed by an Israeli strike in March. Zolghadr will become a political adviser to Khamenei.

Rezaei earlier this month said Iran will never allow an unauthorized route through the Strait of Hormuz, which was considered an international waterway before the war and Tehran's assertion of control.

Iran says negotiations ‘cannot resume’ until conditions met

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters that negotiations with Oman about “new maritime routes” on the Strait of Hormuz were in the final stages but “this, however, does not mean that the Strait of Hormuz will reopen.” That step requires conditions that “have been conveyed through intermediaries.”

The Supreme National Security Council on Saturday said the strait will not reopen until the U.S. “corrects its behavior.” It demanded that the U.S. never threaten Iran again, a permanent end to the war with Iran and its armed allies, a lifting of the naval blockade of Iranian ports and a withdrawal of the U.S. military from the area. The U.S. also must “completely compensate” Iran for war damage, lift sanctions and “unconditionally” release frozen assets.

The United States did not comment on the demands. Trump on Sunday asserted to Axios that “we are only semi-negotiating” with Iran and letting economic pressures take their toll.

Araghchi said an “exchange of messages through intermediaries” continues with the U.S. but that doesn’t constitute negotiations, which he said can’t resume until violations of the interim deal end and the U.S. “has remedied” provisions it violated.

Details emerge about a potential Iran-Oman deal

Iran and Oman, located on the other side of the Strait of Hormuz, are working to finalize a temporary deal that would reopen it, with ships entering near Iran and exiting near Oman, according to two people familiar with the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Ships would transit without paying fees or tolls during the interim period.

The agreement is designed to restore the separate interim deal between the U.S. and Iran. The two people said the agreement is endorsed by Gulf Cooperation Council members and is expected to be jointly announced by Iran, Oman, the U.S. and the U.N.’s International Maritime Organization. But they stressed the terms still could change.

The Iranian parliament’s National Security Committee approved “general outlines” of a plan to manage the strait, the state broadcaster reported, but a lawmaker said transits by vessels belonging to “hostile countries” would be prohibited. The member of parliament’s presiding board said countries that have “caused damage” to Iran cannot transit until they compensate for it. There were no further details.

— Michelle Price in Washington and Aamer Madhani in New York