Among them is Remy, a 5-year-old dog described by shelter staff as sweet, gentle and loving. Remy was surrendered after her family could no longer afford her care. She has allergies that are being managed with medicated baths and periodic injections from a veterinarian.

Remy is good with children and is calm around people, but the shelter recommends a meet-and-greet if she would be joining a home with another dog. She should not live with cats.

The shelter also has cats available for adoption, including Dakota, a playful 5-month-old kitten.

The Humane Society is hosting its first-ever Fall VIP After Dark mixer, focusing on dogs and cats that have been at the shelter for more than 30 days. Adoption fees for those VIP pets will be waived during the event.

Shelter officials are encouraging the community to attend and meet animals like Remy and the many other dogs and cats still waiting for a home.

Click here for more information if you would like to adopt a pet.

Trevor Jay Johnston, 39, of Landis, North Carolina, was arrested on Tuesday after arriving at FLL on a JetBlue flight from Punta Cana, according to court documents made public on Thursday.

Authorities said customs officers pulled Johnston aside for a border search of his belongings and devices and a search of his Samsung Galaxy cellphone revealed “numerous” disturbing files and chats on messaging app Telegram, along with “numerous payments” made by Johnston for the illicit content.

According to a federal criminal complaint, he also had a GIF of child sexual abuse material, as well as screenshots of advertisements offering images and videos for purchase, in his phone’s gallery.

The complaint states that Johnston admitted to “receiving and purchasing files” and said “he did it numerous times because of the ‘rush.’”

Johnston now faces two federal charges related to the possession and transportation of child sexual abuse material.

As of Thursday morning, he was being held in the Broward Sheriff’s Office Main Jail facility on behalf of the U.S. Marshals Service.

SpaceX launched commander Jessica Watkins and her crew for NASA after a three-week delay to fix the capsule’s leaking fuel system. Thick clouds threatened all morning to halt the countdown but in the end, the skies cleared enough to allow for a safe liftoff.

Although their stay at the International Space Station will last a long six months, the flight there promised to be the quickest yet for Elon Musk’s company: a mere eight-hour transit with an arrival well before bedtime.

With the late morning liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Watkins became the first Black woman to lead a crew to orbit. A geologist who worked with NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity a decade ago, Watkins is making her second trip to the space station following a lengthy stay in 2022.

“Thanks for an amazing ride,” Watkins radioed after reaching orbit.

The others are newcomers to space: NASA’s Luke Delaney, a retired Marine; Canada’s Joshua Kutryk, a colonel in the Royal Canadian Air Force; and Russia’s Sergey Teteryatnikov, a former submariner. They will replace four astronauts who have been living at the orbiting laboratory since February.

“We feel like some of the luckiest people in the world,” Kutryk said ahead of the launch.

This was the 13th crew launched by SpaceX for NASA, not counting 2020s test flight. All four embrace their Crew-13 designation that pays homage in their mission patch to Apollo 13. The harrowing 1970 moonshot ended with the astronauts’ safe return.

“We really wanted to honor their legacy, honor their resilience and their grit, and bring a little bit of that with us,” Watkins said. She and her crewmates rode to the pad in black Teslas bearing plates that read “Lucky 13.”

Kutryk will become the fourth man to become a father while orbiting Earth. Wife Heather is due to give birth to their third child in late November. The Canadian Space Agency promises plenty of support for the entire family when the big day comes.

“A lot of life-changing things can happen over six months,” NASA manager Dana Weigel said on the eve of liftoff, noting that the space agency will do its best to keep Kutryk looped in to his family.

In 2004, NASA provided a radio link between space station astronaut Mike Fincke and his wife’s delivery room during the birth of their daughter. Five years later, Randy Bresnik, commander of next year’s Artemis III mission, dialed in to his wife’s hospital from orbit.

The happy news traveled more slowly for Austrian astronaut Franz Viehbock. His daughter was born a few hours after he launched to the Soviet Union’s Mir space station in 1991. He was not informed until the next day.

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

In 2027 — nearly six decades after King's title at the Foro Italico — the Rome clay-court event will finally award women the same amount of total prize money as men, as part a “major milestone” initiative that the WTA Tour announced Thursday.

The initiative means that all combined WTA 1000 events will award equal prize money for the first time. Besides the Italian Open, the holdouts had been the Canadian Open and the Cincinnati Open.

The other combined 1000 events in Indian Wells, California; Miami; Madrid and Beijing; as well as all four Grand Slams, already offer equal prize money.

“Achieving equal prize money across all combined WTA 1000 tournaments is a major milestone for tennis,” WTA chair Valerie Camillo said. “It demonstrates the WTA’s continued commitment to leading the sports industry in delivering our athletes competitive and financial equality and is a testament to the enduring nature of the founding vision of the WTA.”

In 2023, Italian Open organizers pledged to have equal prize money starting in 2025 but didn’t carry through on the promise.

The total men’s prize money this year in Rome was $9.6 million while the women got $8.3 million.

Alex Eala effect

Also announced for next year was an expanded WTA 250-level tournament in Manila, Philippines, amid massive interest surrounding home player Alex Eala, who is ranked 18th.

In January of this year, the Philippines hosted a WTA 125-level tournament.

Also, the number of annual WTA 500 level tournaments required for players ranked in the top 50 was reduced from six to four, resulting in a total base playing commitment of 14 WTA tournaments plus the four Grand Slams in 2027.

The announcements come after the WTA recently selected Charlotte, North Carolina, to host its flagship event, the WTA Finals, for the next three years in an NBA arena.

“The WTA is stepping up to deliver more for players and tournaments in 2027,” Camillo said. “We have listened to player feedback on the demands of the calendar and responded with a meaningful reduction in commitments."

The WTA relied heavily on its tour architecture council, a working group chaired by third-ranked Jessica Pegula.

“As players, we’re on the road most of the year, so having more flexibility in our schedules and commitments makes a real difference,” Pegula said. “The 2027 changes give us more ability to build our seasons around our own goals — competitively and personally. That’s an impactful step forward for players.”

The WTA said the updates “will be implemented as a one-year pilot" for 2027, allowing it to "evaluate the impact of the changes across the tour to inform decisions for 2028 and beyond.”

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See AP’s full tennis coverage here

The show came at an uneasy moment for luxury: cosmetics giant L’Oréal overtook Louis Vuitton owner LVMH as France’s most valuable listed company in September. And consultants forecast modest growth in personal luxury goods this year after two years of contraction.

Designer Chemena Kamali returned to Chloé’s archives for her spring-summer 2027 “Obsession” collection.

It was a personal declaration of affection for the house — and a test of how much decoration its promise of easy dressing could bear.

Luxury, ready to wear

Gaby Aghion founded Chloé in Paris in 1952, pioneering luxury ready-to-wear: finely made designer clothes sold ready-made, rather than couture created for individual clients.

The idea helped bridge exclusive dressmaking and mass production, offering luxury with less formality.

That inheritance sets a demanding standard: elaborate workmanship should not make the clothes look difficult to wear.

“I wanted something deeply personal — to return to things I love, the emotions they trigger in me,” Kamali said.

Broderie anglaise — embroidery punctuated by small decorative holes — appeared on crisp cotton and sheer organza.

Kamali traced the patterns to 19th-century needlework, while raised floral embroidery recalled the 1960s. Puffed sleeves, tiered ruffles and swinging tassels added volume and movement.

At times, flowers, lace and tassels competed within a single look.

The workmanship impressed, but the result could feel crowded: a lot of visible effort for clothes meant to suggest ease.

Lingerie offered a leaner proposition. Kamali cut away lace to create what she called “romantic harnesses,” framing exposed skin with delicate lines.

A metallic bust strap added a hard glint among the floating fabrics.

These pieces needed fewer flourishes to command attention.

Romance meets rainwear

The coats supplied the collection’s most convincing change of pace: reds and yellows interrupted the softer colors, while wide-brimmed hats pushed the proportions toward the theatrical.

Fishermen’s coats and capes provided the starting point.

Kamali layered transparent vinyl in smoky shades over her silhouettes, bringing sharper outlines to the collection’s softness.

Here, the contrast worked. Substantial outerwear gave the delicate clothes a counterweight, and the bold shapes carried the drama without requiring another layer of ornament.

Tailoring brought further definition. Kamali cited Chloé’s scalloped 1972 “Noël” tuxedo as a reference, revisiting the house’s history of adapting men’s suiting for women.

It offered a firmer framework for her romantic instincts, and her affection for Chloé was clear.

The strongest moments came when that familiarity produced a clear idea: a fisherman’s coat expanded to dramatic proportions, or lingerie stripped back to its outlines.

Those transformations gave the collection direction.

D.C. Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman ordered the dismissal of David Hearn’s case with “prejudice,” which would block U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office from refiling the felony charge against him. The judge ruled nearly a month after hearing attorneys’ arguments.

Hearn’s lawyers say Trump administration officials have continued to falsely accuse the Maryland resident of vandalizing the reflecting pool despite Pirro’s decision to drop the case on July 31. Trump responded by saying Pirro “choked” and “folded like an umbrella.”

Edelman said the case presents “exceptional circumstances” that warrant dismissing the case permanently. He agreed with defense attorneys that the government “shot first and asked questions later” by charging Hearn in a “a lightning-fast indictment process.”

“While the government wishes to hold open the possibility of the development of evidence that would support a future prosecution, its own representations make plain that such a possibility is theoretical at best, and more likely, is simply fanciful,” the judge wrote.

Permanently dismissing the case protects Hearn from prosecutors electing to revive the case under political pressure from Trump, the judge said.

“Although the prosecutors assigned to this case have deemed it meritless, the President of the United States has repeatedly disparaged them and pressured them to change course,” Edelman wrote.

In a court filing in July, Pirro said new evidence produced by the Interior Department showed Hearn wasn’t responsible for damage to the pool’s lining. Pirro’s office attributed the damage instead to a botched installation by a contractor as well as a rush to complete the project in time for this summer’s America 250 celebration in Washington.

Pirro’s admission was an embarrassing setback for the White House. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has backed Trump’s claims that vandals damaged the pool.

Hearn has said he was on a bike ride on June 19 when he reached in to examine the pool’s newly peeled coating and briefly touched a chunk attached to the side of the pool. But he said he obeyed a park worker’s command to let go of it.

Hearn was charged with one count of property destruction, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years. His lawyers questioned whether prosecutors properly presented the grand jury with adequate evidence to support the charge and the amount of damage alleged by the government.

Hearn, 67, of Bethesda, Maryland, competed in three Summer Olympics, earning his best finish, ninth, at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee says on its website.

Trump, a Republican, appointed Pirro, a former Fox News host, to serve as the top federal prosecutor for the District of Columbia. Edelman was nominated to the bench by Democratic President Barack Obama.

Hearn’s attorneys said the ruling is “a victory for the rule of law and for an innocent American seeking justice” and allows Hearn to “move forward with his life as he deserves.”

“This administration chose to pursue an unjust prosecution against Mr. Hearn. It should not get repeated chances to wield the power of criminal prosecution against someone who should never have been prosecuted,” the lawyers said in a statement.

Authorities said the case centers around Janet Risi Field, 66, of Pinecrest, the former CEO of Independent Purchasing Cooperative, a company based near Miami International Airport at 701 Waterford Way, and her brother Steven Louis Risi, 70, of Coral Gables. The two were indicted on Thursday, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

IPC, founded in part by Risi Field in 1996 and which she led until she was fired in December 2021, is the “the purchasing and services cooperative” for Subway franchisees and “managed the chain’s North American supply chain and negotiated with vendors to establish the prices franchisees paid for food, supplies and services,” authorities said.

Risi Field took advantage of this, according to the DOJ, “by entering into a secret arrangement with co-conspirators who acted as brokers for IPC vendors who supplied franchisees with goods and services, including deli meats, cheeses and cookies.”

“Under the arrangement, the brokers allegedly shared a portion of the fees generated from vendor contracts with Risi Field and members of her family,” a DOJ news release states. “Risi Field, her brother, and other family members allegedly used shell companies to conceal more than $60 million in illegal bribe and kickback payments.”

The whole thing cost franchisees more than $80 million, a DOJ news release states.

Authorities accuse Risi Field of using the ill-gotten funds to make investments, remodel homes in Florida and North Carolina, buy hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of jewelry and pay for private club memberships, among other things.

Risi Field, prosecutors said, “caused a co-conspirator to fund a multimillion-dollar slush fund used to enrich herself and members of her family, including more than $420,000 paid to a Risi family personal assistant and more than $150,000 to Risi Field’s housekeeper and handyman.”

Additionally, authorities said Risi Field had a co-conspirator pay $8 million to settle a lawsuit from an ex-IPC contractor who had alleged that she maintained an inappropriate financial relationship with vendors and then hid the allegations and settlement from the IPC board.

Prosecutors accuse her and her brother of laundering millions through shell companies and controlled bank accounts, including $3.4 million used for her credit card bills and $1 million deposited into a joint account. Risi Field is accused of causing about $25 million in slush-fund payments, mainly benefiting herself and other co-conspirators.

Authorities said even after she was fired in 2021, IPC’s directors and Subway franchisees remained unaware of the scheme and Risi Field pocketed a $6 million severance payment.

Prosecutors said the siblings are both charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and two counts of engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity.

Risi Field also faces several counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

The two are now facing the possibility of decades in federal prison. Court documents were not immediately available online in the federal docket.

Additionally, the two did not appear in federal, Miami-Dade or Broward jail records.

Kenscoff Mayor Jean Massillon said armed men raided the community late Sunday, setting fire to homes and killing residents.

“It is still impossible to establish a definitive death toll due to access difficulties and communication problems,” he said.

Wails filled the air in Kenscoff as survivors found the bodies of friends and family strewn on the streets early Monday.

“They killed my son!” one woman kept yelling as people nearby tried to comfort her.

One man flung himself on the side of the road, head on his right arm as he cried on the ground. Nearby, people picked up the bodies of those killed, some wrapped in blood-spattered sheets.

Robert Jean recalled how he heard shooting before dawn and tried to rouse people from their sleep to escape being killed. He said he was frantically looking for his brother, who was killed: “I was calling to see if everyone was safe. I could not find my brother.”

Another Kenscoff resident blamed the government for the killings.

“If only we had a good police force that would have placed an armored truck here, what happened here would have been prevented,” said Verti Enold-Saint as he lifted a sheet over the body of his brother-in-law.

Farmer Mathurin Pierre, 41, told AP that he lost 14 loved ones and that an unknown number remain missing.

Massillon blamed the attack on members of Viv Ansanm, which the U.S. government designated as a foreign terrorist organization last year.

“They sowed chaos,” Massillon said.

He said gang members targeted a church and homes including those owned by Dr. Jean “Bill” Pape. He is a renowned doctor who runs a nongovernmental organization in Haiti that helps patients including those with HIV and tuberculosis.

Haiti’s Office of Citizen Protection issued a statement decrying the massacre, saying dozens of people, including “numerous” young Haitians, were killed.

Vladimir Paraison, director of Haiti’s National Police, visited the area and defended police officers as journalists pressed for answers.

“The police never lowered their arms,” he said. “Look at how many police officers are here; the response is in front of you.”

Jean Fritz Patterson Dorval, head of Port-au-Prince’s prosecutor’s office, also came under pressure. He said there are eight armored vehicles in Kenscoff, adding that “there are technical responses that only the mayor and the police can answer.”

No further details about the attack were available. A spokesperson for the U.N.-backed gang suppression force did not return a message seeking comment.

Haiti’s government issued a statement condemning what it called a heinous criminal attack. “Reinforcements are being deployed,” it said. “Kenscoff will not be abandoned.”

It said that security forces were ordered to pursue those responsible. “The population must remain confident,” the government said, adding that it would not back down.

Gangs control an estimated 70% of Port-au-Prince, the capital, with Viv Ansanm repeatedly targeting nearby Kenscoff.

Gang violence has displaced a record 1.5 million people across Haiti, where more than 3,100 people were reported killed from January to June and another 1,189 injured, according to U.N. statistics.

The attack comes less than a week after the U.S. government deported more than 160 people to the troubled Caribbean country for the first time since the Trump administration won a legal battle to end Temporary Protected Status for some 350,000 Haitians.

Haiti’s government has said some of the deportees included TPS holders. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Monday in a statement to the AP that those deported Friday included several gang members with criminal records ranging from assault to drug trafficking.

Haiti is scheduled to hold general elections for the first time in more than a decade on Dec. 13, and it has been registering voters in Port-au-Prince and beyond. Experts have warned it’s currently too dangerous to hold elections.

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Associated Press reporter Dánica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico, contributed.

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

It is believed to be one of the largest mass kidnappings in Haiti in recent years, and one gang leader is threatening to kill the hostages if authorities kill any gang members as they try to secure the community nestled in the hills above Port-au-Prince.

Sunday’s attack on Kenscoff pierced the belief that security in the troubled Caribbean country was improving.

“This is a major political and security test, for the government, for the police and for the international mission,” said Romain Le Cour, head of the Haiti Observatory at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.

He said the threat of executing hostages is a trap: If forces don’t act, they’ve failed to protect them; if they do and hostages die, the gangs will blame the state.

Kenscoff resident Marc Paul, 42, said gangs kidnapped his brother, stepmother, stepfather and two cousins. He said his 16-year-old niece also was kidnapped and raped but was able to escape and has reunited with him.

“I had to run over bodies,” he said as he recalled how he fled the attack. “I can’t sleep knowing all these people died.”

Paul and his family had already lost their home to a previous gang attack in January 2025, but he said it was not as violent as Sunday’s attack. Paul was upset about the video the gangs posted: “My brother is probably going to die.”

A threat posted on social media

In a video posted on social media, the gang leader threatened Vladimir Paraison, director of Haiti’s National Police.

“Paraison, if any of our soldiers are hurt, I will kill all of them,” he said, referring to the hostages.

The gang member identified himself as Izo 2, a reference to Izo, or Johnson André, one of Haiti’s most powerful gang leaders.

Le Cour said Izo 2 is also known as “Didi” and leads the armed group in Kenscoff on behalf of and in coordination with Izo and other gang leaders.

Kenson Paul, the 17-year-old nephew of Marc Paul, said he managed to escape the attackers.

“They have not called us to let us know what they want,” he said of the gang. “I worry for my family’s life.”

Le Cour said the aim of Sunday’s attack could be to force Haiti’s police and the U.N.-backed gang suppression force to disperse even more of their limited resources.

“They don’t have enough personnel,” Le Cour said in a phone interview. “If you force them to deploy more troops, it would inevitably be at the expense of other areas.”

The attack might also just be a show of force and a message to Haiti’s government and police as the country prepares to hold general elections on Dec. 13 for the first time in more than a decade.

“This is a message to the government and the police that their claims of protection do not match reality,” Le Cour said. “The gangs are saying: when we choose to attack, we can, and we will succeed.”

Attacks on Kenscoff have escalated

The first major attack on Kenscoff occurred in January 2025, and since then, there have been sporadic attacks in the mountains surrounding the city center.

But Sunday’s attack was the largest yet. At least five of the 47 people killed were children, according to the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti, known as BINUH.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the attack on Tuesday, noting that 22 of the victims were reportedly executed in a church compound where they had sought shelter: “The relentless gang attacks on communities and the loss of lives underscore the alarming security conditions in Haiti,” he said.

Kenscoff Mayor Jean Massillon told The Associated Press on Tuesday that gangs set fire to 25 homes and killed two government employees including his cousin, who served as his security detail.

“The atrocity of this crime reminds us that we have to continue working stronger every day to bring peace to the community,” Massillon said. “I’m optimistic that the state will continue working to eradicate the gangs in Kenscoff.”

Gangs are coveting Kenscoff because it allows them to surround and control the upscale community of Pétion-Ville and alternate routes connecting Haiti’s capital to its southern region, said María Fernanda Arocha, a researcher with the nonprofit Armed Conflict Location & Event Data.

Between January and August this year, security operations had managed to reduce violence in Kenscoff by 66% prior to the attack, she said in a statement.

“While security forces have concentrated their efforts on operations aimed at regaining control in the central areas of Port-au-Prince, criminal groups have instead sought to expand into rural communities that are vulnerable due to the limited response capacity of the police, but which remain strategic hubs,” she added.

Haitians demand police protection

Some survivors accused the government of not providing enough protection prior to the attack, with Haiti’s National Police rejecting those accusations.

Le Cour said that if police and armored vehicles were indeed stationed in Kenscoff prior to the attack, then the assertion is concerning: “You let the gangs come in even if you had everything in place?”

Haiti’s National Police issued a statement Tuesday saying Paraison ordered an investigation to establish the truth about the attack “whether due to complicity or negligence.” He also ordered additional specialized units to the area, saying “It is an obligation to protect the civilian population.”

Armed men control an estimated 70% of Port-au-Prince and swaths of land in Haiti’s central region and beyond.

Gang violence has displaced a record 1.5 million people across Haiti, where more than 3,050 people were reported killed from January to June, according to U.N. statistics released Tuesday.

The U.N. noted that nearly 800 rapes were reported from April to June, with 87% of those cases representing collective rapes.

At least 81 people also were reported kidnapped during that time period, according to a new U.N. report.

“These figures represent only a portion of the total number of people kidnapped,” it stated. “In many cases, victims’ relatives do not report kidnappings to the police or service providers and choose to negotiate directly with the kidnappers, believing that this approach allows for a quicker release and avoids possible reprisals.”

The number of kidnappings reported from April to June represents a more than 40% increase compared with the previous quarter.

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Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico.

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

Ross, whose legal name is William Roberts II, faces a felony charge of battery by strangulation, as well as a misdemeanor battery charge, according to online court records.

An attorney for Ross, 50, said in a statement that Ross is being wrongfully accused by an ex-girlfriend whose true motivations are unclear.

“The ex did not even file a police report until a month after the claimed incident allegedly took place,” defense attorney Steve Sadow said in the statement. “Mr. Roberts is innocent and has pled not guilty to the charges. He respectfully requests that his friends, fans and the general public not prejudge the situation and allow the judicial process to run its course.”

Jail records showed that Ross was being held Thursday morning on $5,000 bail. An arraignment is scheduled for Oct. 22.

According to news reports, Ross pleaded no contest in 2017 to kidnapping and assault charges and was sentenced to probation after he and his bodyguard were accused of holding two groundskeepers against their will at Ross’ suburban Atlanta house. Ross was also accused of beating one of the men with a pistol, chipping his teeth and mangling his jaw.

Ross is a longtime South Florida resident who gained prominence in 2006 with his debut single “Hustlin.”

The professional photographer he hired was friendly and supportive, he said, and he liked watching her work during the several hours they spent together. She shot some close-ups in her studio and then took outdoor images of Eil near the Seekonk River, one of his favorite spots in Providence, Rhode Island.

“There was so much emotion wrapped up in publishing this book, which I had worked on for over a decade,” Eil said of the 2024 shoot that helped launch his true-crime book about a doctor who prescribed massive amounts of opioid painkillers. “By the time I took these photos, it was near the end of that process. It was a moment to put my face on the book, and I liked how I looked in a place that I love.”

Headshots used on social media profiles, business websites and in other career contexts are like virtual handshakes, often introducing people to potential employers, collaborators or audiences long before an in-person meeting.

It's natural to want to feel good about your appearance in those pictures, but conveying the image you want to project is even more important, said Chris Gillett, a Houston-based photographer who specializes in headshots.

“It’s going to be a first impression, and the research on first impressions shows that they’re formed instantly and are sticky,” Gillett, a former attorney, said.

Even a millimeter shift in a smile or an eyebrow can change someone’s expression, he said. A smile should look authentic, while confidence is communicated through the eyes. The face should always be the focus; that's why Gillett prefers classic headshots — which show the head and shoulders — over portraits that feature folded arms or waistlines.

“It’s the simplest form of people photography, but it’s endlessly fascinating,” he said.

Here are some things to keep in mind when it comes to creating and using headshots:

Make sure you’re recognizable

There’s no rule of thumb for how often to update your headshots, Gillett said. Just make sure they still look like you. A noticeable difference between a headshot and how you look in person can erode trust.

Heavily edited photos present the same hazard, said Emily Lauro, an area director for Goodwin Recruiting, a New Hampshire-based company that matches job seekers and employers.

“Look like you on your best professional day and not a completely different person,” Lauro said. “They’re not meant to be how photogenic you are. They’re meant to be your real likeness and image.”

Figure out what you’re trying to communicate

Gillett once did headshots for two young lawyers. One wanted to convey that she was tired of being underestimated. The other liked being underestimated because it could throw her opponents off guard.

“There’s no right answer to how you want to be perceived,” Gillett said. “The only wrong answer is leaving it up to chance.”

Your headshot should also align with your profession. A startup founder may want a photo that emphasizes innovation and energy, while a financial adviser may want to convey trustworthiness and reliability.

Know when and where to share headshots

It’s generally not a good idea to put a headshot on your resume, said Jenny Battershell, the director of marketing for Goodwin Recruiting.

Resume designs should be simple and straightforward, she said. Photos can confuse automated resume-tracking systems, which are designed to scan text.

Including a photo on a resume could also have unintended consequences. Battershell said Goodwin Recruiting works with employers to get them to recognize and overcome biases, but they can exist. She remembers one client who had a successful first interview by phone but was rejected when the employer saw the client’s unusual hair color during a second-round video interview.

Lauro said the absence of a photo or a less-than-stellar one on a LinkedIn page wouldn't deter her from working with a qualified job candidate.

“If someone is open to work and they don’t have a photo and their qualifications line up with the job, I’m reaching out to them anyway,” she said. “Some people are more social media savvy than others.”

Consider the pros and cons of AI-generated headshots

Artificial intelligence has made it easier and cheaper to obtain a headshot. ChatGPT can turn a selfie into a headshot with a few prompts. The website HeadshotPro uses AI to turn a few selfies into 30 headshots for $29. By comparison, Gillett charges $290 per sitting plus $295 for each headshot you pick.

AI-generated headshots may suffice for people who are short on time or money, but Gillett thinks the confidence that comes from learning to hold yourself in front of a camera is invaluable.

“I can make you look like the best version of yourself possible, but only you can make you better,” he said.

Headshots created with the help of AI may raise other issues. They can look heavily edited and unrealistic, Lauro said. You want a potential employer to focus on your experience and qualifications, not on whether your photo is authentic.

Eil said using an AI headshot would have robbed him of the experience of working with the local photographer who knew how to bring out his personality in her work. If cost is an issue, he suggested looking for a photography student or even a friend who might be willing to shoot some headshots. Professional headshots are also sometimes offered as a free perk at conferences.

“The AI thing just bums me out,” Eil said. “AI headshots tend to look uncanny and unnatural. Even if it was photorealistic, I wouldn’t have those warm memories of that day and this thing we produced together.”

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Share your stories and questions about workplace wellness at cbussewitz@ap.org. Follow AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health at https://apnews.com/hub/be-well

Rick Case Automotive Group is making it possible for hundreds of kids in our communities to take their very own bike out for a spin. You can be part of the magic.

Beginning today, Local 10 viewers can donate gently used bikes at any Rick Case Automotive Group dealership in Broward County. The bikes will be spruced up for kids to receive them just in time for the holidays.

“Life changes and kids grow up, so it’s quite common that families have bikes in the garage that their kids have outgrown,” said Rita Case, President and CEO of the Rick Case Automotive Group. “Bring them to us, so those bikes can be rejuvenated and passed along to kids who will continue to cherish them.”

For 45 years, Rick Case Bikes for Kids has impacted generations of young South Floridians. Since that time, the annual program has collected more than 124,000 bikes in Florida, Georgia and Ohio.

Through December 20, the bikes collected and refurbished will be given to kids and teens at the Boys & Girls Clubs, Habitat for Humanity, Women in Distress and other local charitable organizations, churches, synagogues and schools.

“A core childhood memory is learning to balance on two wheels for the first time and removing the training wheels,” added Case. “Every child deserves that sense of accomplishment, and every parent deserves that bonding experience.”

Bikes can be dropped off at the following Rick Case Automotive Group dealerships:

• Rick Case Honda / 15700 Rick Case Honda Way (I-75 at Griffin Road), Davie
• Rick Case Acura / 875 North State Road 7 (on 441 at Sunrise), Ft. Lauderdale
• Rick Case Hyundai / 925 North State Road 7 (on 441 at Sunrise), Ft. Lauderdale
• Rick Case Hyundai / 3550 Weston Road (I-75 Auto Row), Davie
• Rick Case Honda Cycles / 15701 Rick Case Honda Way (I-75 at Griffin Road), Davie
• Rick Case Alfa Romeo/Maserati / 3500 Weston Road (I-75 Auto Row), Davie
• Rick Case Volkswagen / 3520 Weston Road (1-75 Auto Row), Davie
• Rick Case Kia / 14500 W Sunrise Blvd, Sunrise (Sunrise at the Sawgrass Expressway)

The dealerships are open seven days a week. For specific hours and more information, visit RickCase.com.

Shaquille Alexander Albert Grant is facing one count of first-degree grand theft involving property valued at more than $100,000, jail records show.

Miramar police said they responded to a theft report shortly after 9:30 p.m. on Aug. 17 at a home whose location was redacted in an arrest report.

The woman told police that before leaving for a business trip on Aug. 3, she discovered that six designer handbags were missing from her closet. Each bag was valued at $20,000 or more, according to the arrest report.

The woman identified Grant as the person responsible for taking the handbags without authorization, police said. The report states that Grant had worked as her fashion stylist for about seven years and was authorized to enter her home.

The woman told police she had instructed Grant to take one of her handbags to be professionally cleaned. Instead, she said, Grant took six handbags and did not return them, according to police.

She told police that she made multiple attempts to get Grant to return the handbags but was unsuccessful.

After a social media post was made seeking information about the missing items, the handbags were located at a business called “Cashingdiamonds” in Aventura, according to police. The business resells authentic designer handbags and other luxury items.

Police said Grant had brought the handbags to the business as a loan.

The six items were identified as five Hermès handbags and one Chanel water bottle, with a total reported value of $271,938.60, the report states.

Police said the woman told them she wanted to prosecute Grant for each handbag.

As of Thursday, Grant was being held at the Broward County Main Jail. His bond had not been immediately set.

According to records, Ross, whose real name is William Leonard Roberts, was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center at 6:10 a.m. on a battery by strangulation charge.

The 50-year-old’s arrest comes days after his now ex-girlfriend, Jazzma Kendrick, took to Instagram to publicly accuse him of physically abusing her.

Last weekend, Kendrick posted an Instagram Story, sharing a DM from a fan who told her, “I’m seeing what Rick is seeing your (sic) so gorgeous.”

Kendrick responded, “He saw a punching bag.”

An arrest report from the Miami Beach Police Department names the victim in the case only by the initials J.K.

According to the report, the victim went to the police department Tuesday to report a domestic violence incident that she said occurred on the morning of Aug. 28.

Police said the victim and Ross had been in a relationship for about a year and lived together at the time of the incident.

According to the report, the victim claimed that she was awakened by Ross on Aug. 28, as he was enraged that she had been tagged in a photo on Instagram.

Police said Ross questioned the victim, accused her of lying to him and then slapped her in the face.

The rapper then accused the victim of being involved with a man she claimed she was only friends with, authorities said.

According to the report, Ross followed the victim around as he questioned her and struck her each time she denied the accusations.

Police said Ross also struck the victim several times in the chest and choked her to the point that she couldn’t breathe by grabbing the collar of her hoodie and twisting it.

Authorities said the rapper then grabbed the victim by her ponytail and slammed her into a wall before striking her in the face as she was bent over, leaving her with a “busted lip.”

According to the report, Ross then pushed the victim to the floor of a bathroom, grabbed the shower head and tried to spray her with water.

The victim was able to escape from the bathroom and leave the home, authorities said.

According to the report, the victim returned to the property and waited for Ross to leave before she gathered her belongings and left again.

Police said the victim called a friend to pick her up, but surveillance video shows that the friend was turned away from the property.

According to the report, Ross surrendered himself at the police station Thursday morning and did not provide a statement about the incident.

He appeared in bond court later in the morning and was granted a $5,000 bond. A Miami-Dade County judge ordered him to stay away from the victim.

While Ross is originally from Mississippi, he grew up in Miami-Dade’s Carol City and has homes in Atlanta and Miami Beach’s Star Island.

He has had numerous hit songs over his career, including “Aston Martin Music” and “Hustlin’.”

Deputies arrested David Armeda at 2:25 p.m. on Wednesday at Macy’s at Dadeland Mall, at 7303 North Kendall Drive, according to a Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office arrest report.

“He had in his possession multiple stolen credit cards with several different names,” a deputy wrote, adding that Armeda was “under the effects of methamphetamine,” according to the arrest report.

Surveillance videos showed Armeda stealing from mailboxes on July 31, at 9150 and 9120 Fontainebleau Boulevard, according to the MDSO arrest report. The U.S. Postal Service estimated Armeda caused damage to a mailbox valued at about $28,125.

Miami-Dade corrections booked Armeda at 6:45 p.m. on Wednesday at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, according to inmate records.

Armeda faced three criminal charges in two new cases. He also had a warrant case while out on felony bond for attempted tampering with physical evidence and possession of drug paraphernalia with intent to use.

In the July case, he faced charges of criminal mischief of a $1,000 or more and knowingly removing or taking mail from a mail depository.

In the Wednesday case, he faced a charge of criminal use of personal identification information.

It wasn't clear if Pike was still alive on Thursday. She could be heard snoring loudly in the execution chamber Wednesday night more than an hour after the execution process began and nearly 30 minutes after a second dose of pentobarbital was administered.

Pike, who was sentenced to death for a gruesome 1995 murder, was taken by ambulance from the prison to a hospital, where she was being treated, her attorneys said.

May Martinez, whose daughter was murdered by Pike and her boyfriend and who traveled to Nashville to see the sentence carried out, told NBC News that “it was a mess.”

The failure, which one death penalty expert described as unprecedented, led Gov. Bill Lee to postpone Tennessee's lone remaining execution this year and to order a review “to determine exactly what occurred.” It also raises questions again about the state’s procedures and its use of single-drug lethal injections.

“There are very few answers this morning. It’s very early. There are a lot of questions," Lee told reporters Thursday at an unrelated event, noting he had received no updates on Pike's condition. "The people of our state deserve to have those questions answered."

“This is a tragedy. There is no one who wanted what happened last night to happen," the governor said. He added: “It’s deeply disturbing to me that this has happened in this state.”

Pike, 50, had been scheduled for execution Wednesday morning for the killing she committed at age 18 and would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years. An appeals court stopped the execution an hour before it was to start, but the U.S. Supreme Court overturned that stay hours later.

Officials gave Pike two doses of pentobarbital, her attorneys said in court filings late Wednesday.

The Tennessee Department of Correction said in a statement that it “followed every step of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office.”

Tennessee changed its execution method two years ago

The state's execution protocol calls for a secondary set of drug syringes to be administered “if the inmate is not deceased” after the first set. It does not spell out what happens if the subject is alive after the second set.

Tennessee announced in 2024 it was switching from a three-drug series for lethal injections to the single drug pentobarbital. That came more than two years after the state abruptly halted the execution of Oscar Smith and acknowledged it had failed to ensure its lethal injection drugs were tested properly.

Robin M. Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said what Pike experienced is “singular and unparalleled.”

Seven other people have survived medical problems due to an execution team's failure to access a vein to administer lethal injection drugs, but no one has stayed alive after receiving the drugs used in such executions, she said.

Executions in the U.S. have fallen sharply since the beginning of this century as public opposition has increased and so have concerns about costs and the drugs used in lethal injections. But the number of executions nearly doubled last year behind a record increase in Florida.

Pike would have been the 30th person executed in the U.S. this year.

Pike was awake in the execution chamber

Strapped to a gurney in the execution chamber, Pike described herself as at peace.

“I’m going to leave this world the way I spent most of my life and that is in love,” she said in her “last” words.

But she remained awake and at one point raised her head, asking prison officials if her arm was supposed to feel that way. An hour after officials first raised the execution chamber's curtains, witnesses reported that a second dose of pentobarbital was administered.

Pike could still be heard snoring behind a closed curtain until the microphone was cut off almost 30 minutes later.

Lawyers for Pike filed an emergency motion late Wednesday with the Tennessee Supreme Court seeking to immediately halt and stay the execution, saying she was in “unnecessary agony” and the procedure violated her right to be executed free of cruel and unusual punishment. They also filed motions with two other courts.

It was the second time this year that Tennessee has been unable to complete an execution: In May state officials called off the lethal injection of Tony Carruthers, who was convicted of kidnapping and killing three people in 1994, after executioners tried and failed for over an hour to place an IV to administer pentobarbital.

Pike and her boyfriend were convicted of the fatal stabbing and beating in 1995 of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a classmate at a job training facility in Knoxville. The killing gained attention because of a pentagram carved on Slemmer’s body, stoking fears of Satan worship during the “satanic panic” of the 1980s and 1990s.

Pike’s boyfriend wasn’t eligible for the death penalty because he was 17 at the time of the killing and received a sentence of life in prison. He was denied parole last year.

Pike's case renews the debate over the death sentence

Pike did not deny committing the killing, but her supporters argued that the state should consider her age at the time, her mental illness and her allegations of severe sexual abuse.

Assistant Federal Defender Stephen Ferrell said Pike’s death sentence is an outlier because other 18-year-olds in Tennessee have had such sentences vacated.

After the killing, Pike was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. In her clemency petition, she said she only wanted to fight Slemmer but killed her in a frenzied attack when she couldn’t “put the brakes on.”

“It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I’d done,” Pike said in a statement.

___

Associated Press writers Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, Ed White in Detroit, Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, Hallie Golden in Seattle and Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City contributed.

The two lawsuits were filed by Good’s partner, Becca Good, and Renee's brother Brent Ganger.

The Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Officer shot Good as she turned her car away from him

Renee Good was fatally shot Jan. 7 as protests against immigration raids flared across the city. According to Becca Good, her partner stopped their car in a street to support neighbors during an immigration operation.

Bystander video shows Renee Good in the driver’s seat of a red SUV blocking part of the road and repeatedly honking her horn.

Two immigration officers get out of a truck, their faces covered, and one orders Good to get out of the car. She reverses briefly, then turns the steering wheel as the officer says again, “get out of the car.”

Almost simultaneously, Becca Good, standing in the street, shouts: “Drive, baby, drive!”

One officer standing in front of the vehicle pulls his weapon and fires into the windshield. He lurches back as the car turns away from him. The officer, who is now very close to the open window on the driver’s side, fires two more times, fatally shooting Renee Good, according to an analysis of the videos by The Associated Press and others.

Federal officials at the time said the officer acted in self-defense and that Good had engaged in “an act of domestic terrorism.”

One lawsuit alleges wrongful death

The lawsuit against the United States of America seeks damages for Good's wrongful death and “the immense suffering Renee endured in the final moments of her life and for the profound and permanent losses that her death has inflicted upon her family,” according to a news release by lawyers for Ganger and Good.

The lawsuit, which seeks a bench trial, also alleges “intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent infliction of emotional distress” on Becca Good.

Becca and Renee Good, the mother of three children, were not legally married, according to a family lawyer, but referred to one another as wives. They had only recently relocated to Minneapolis from Kansas City, Missouri.

Another lawsuit alleges conspiracy to conceal evidence

The other lawsuit alleges a conspiracy to interfere with civil rights and seeks a jury trial. It says the federal government moved to hide the evidence of what actually happened on Jan. 7.

The lawsuit says the shots fired by Jonathan Ross, the immigration officer who killed Good, “were the predictable and intended product of the operation.”

It describes a “carefully planned, coordinated effort between senior federal officials and private actors to make two ethnic communities — Minnesotans of Somali and Hispanic descent and origin — the object of aggression and abduction, and to silence by intimidation, arrest and violence the neighbors and allies of those targeted communities who observed, documented and warned of that campaign.”

The lawsuit names Ross as a defendant, as well as: White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller; former Homeland Security head Kristi Noem; Corey Lewandowski, a campaign manager for President Donald Trump who also served as one of Noem's advisers; White House border czar Tom Homan; former acting director of U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Todd Lyons; former U.S. Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino; and 10 unnamed federal agents.

Good's partner acknowledges other lives lost in immigration crackdown

The killing of Good and another U.S. citizen, Alex Pretti, in Minneapolis just weeks later sparked outrage across the country and calls to rein in immigration enforcement. At least 10 people have died in encounters with immigration officers during President Donald Trump’s second term.

In social media accounts, Renee Good described herself as a “poet and writer and wife and mom.” On Pinterest, a profile picture shows her smiling and holding a young child, alongside posts about tattoos, hairstyles and home decorating.

In an interview shortly after her death, Renee Good’s mother, Donna Ganger, told The Associated Press: “She had this way of making you feel special and loved that I didn’t even understand that until we lost her.”

Good's partner noted the broader loss to communities nationwide.

“As we have tried to navigate our own massive loss, I am also devastated by how many other lives have been destroyed in this darkest of times,” Becca Good said in the news release Thursday. “So many other families are dealing with the loss of their loved ones; to everyone who has had to witness it — the pain of this moment extends far beyond our family. What happened to us should never happen to any family.”

___

McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire.

Right on cue, we’ll be watching a strong fall front swing into the Gulf early next week before stalling out from Florida down into the lower stretches of the southwestern Gulf for later next week.

We first mentioned this area in Tuesday’s newsletter and forecast models have gradually perked up in their interest since. Development odds for Google’s bellwether 1,000-member AI-based DeepMind ensemble system – which has run a little hot for unformed disturbances so far this season – have crept up from around 20 to 30% on Tuesday to now just over 50%.

Similarly, the 100-member, traditional physics-based Euro ensemble is now up to around 30 to 40% in its development odds of at least a tropical storm strength system forming in the nook of the southern Gulf and Bay of Campeche from late next Wednesday through Friday.

Sloppy subtropical-like system?

It’s a little early to tease out specifics if something tries to form along the stalled front later next week, but in general the orientation and strength of the strong subtropical jet stream over the northern Gulf suggests this one won’t have an easy time at quick organization.

If anything, with the amount of wind shear in place, odds favor a sprawling, sloppy subtropical-like system – with storminess shunted off to the north and east – if something were to move into the central or northern Gulf by next weekend (weekend of October 10th).

Of course, with waters at record warmth for the time of year, it’s worth following the trends in the models to see if upper-level winds open up any window for something more.

At least for now, most scenarios don’t point to a strong system if development occurs, but we’re still 7 to 10 days out so it’s just something we’ll want to monitor – primarily for the northern Gulf Coast for the holiday weekend.

Quiet otherwise across the Atlantic

Other than storminess and low pressure along the stalled front next week in the Gulf, the rest of the Atlantic basin should stay quiet for the first part of the month.

The justices will consider whether immigrants who have been living in the U.S. have a right to a hearing to determine if they should remain detained while challenging their possible deportation.

The case will test a key pillar of the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration agenda.

Most appeals courts to have considered the issue have found that it violates federal law to detain immigrants, including those living in the U.S. illegally, without a bond hearing. Those decisions conflict with rulings by the 5th and 8th circuits, which held that immigrants accused of illegally entering and remaining in the U.S. must be detained while their deportation cases are pending.

The high court agreed to hear the case of Ricardo Aparecido Barbosa da Cunha, a citizen of Brazil. Authorities say he entered the United States illegally two decades ago and applied for asylum in 2016. He sought a bond hearing after an immigration judge determined that his detention was mandatory following his September 2025 arrest.

He has never been charged or convicted of a crime, his attorneys said. The court is expected to hear the case in the coming months.

President Donald Trump’s administration had urged the high court to take up a different but related case that involves the broader constitutional implications of the new policy.

Attorneys from the Republican administration argue the circuits’ split is “disrupting the orderly administration of immigration law.” They say the nation’s courts have been inundated with thousands of petitions filed by immigrants challenging the government’s legal interpretation.

“The result is an unworkable patchwork of inconsistent immigration enforcement, where aliens present without admission are subject to mandatory detention in some circuits but are entitled to bond hearings and often released in others,” lawyers for the administration wrote.

The plaintiffs are immigrants represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, which says hundreds of district court judges have joined most circuits in rejecting the Trump administration’s new reading of the statutes. Plaintiffs’ lawyers say the administration is trying to deny bond hearings for immigrants apprehended anywhere in the U.S. — no matter how long they’ve lived in the country — rather than limiting the restriction to noncitizens stopped at the border.

“Millions of noncitizens could be affected by the government’s new interpretation,” ACLU attorneys wrote.

The Trump administration says its new mandatory detention policy is legal under a 1996 immigration law. The policy change departs from the practices of prior administrations, which typically allowed most noncitizens without criminal records to request a bond hearing if they were arrested away from the border.

___

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

Inspectors found more than 30 live flies in various areas, along with food-contact areas in need of cleaning and improperly hot-held rice.

The Chipotle at 6290 S. Dixie Highway in Miami was ordered shut Sept. 29 and was allowed to re-open following a cleanup and re-inspection.

Records show the Chicken Guy in Davie was also ordered shut due to a flying insect issue.

**CHIPOTLE

6290 SOUTH DIXIE HIGHWAY

SOUTH MIAMI

INSPECTION BASED ON COMPLAINT

ORDERED SHUT 9/29

5 VIOLATIONS FOUND

“Live, small flying insects found. Observed 15+ live flies on single service items and soda syrup dispensers in kitchen outside of walk in cooler. Observed 1 live fly on wall in ware wash area. Observed 2 live flies at front counter area above POS system next to cold line. Observed 8 live flies in men & women’s restroom. Observed 1 live fly in women's restroom. Observed 6 live flies above and under soda fountain located in lobby.”

“Wall soiled with accumulated grease, food debris, and/or dust. Observed interior soiled prep across walk in.”

“Time/temperature control for safety food, other than whole meat roast, hot held at less than 135 degrees Fahrenheit. Observed at front counter: white rice (125F - Hot Holding). As per operator, less than 2 hours.”

**CHICKEN GUY

4301 SOUTH UNIVERSITY DR.

DAVIE

ORDERED SHUT 9/30

9 VIOLATIONS FOUND

“Stop Sale issued due to food not being in a wholesome, sound condition. Presence of insects, rodents, or other pests. Observed approximately 10 ants crawling on and in a container of honey in the prep area. Operator disposed of the container of honey.”

“Live, small flying insects found. Observed approximately 6 small flying insects near the dishwashing area landing on clean dishes and walls. Observed approximately 20 small flying insects in the dry storage area landing in sealed packages of cereal and boxes of single service items. Observed approximately 15 small flying insects in the prep area landing on containers of spices, walls and tables. Observed approximately 5 small flying insects in the mop sink area landing on walls. Observed approximately 15 small flying insects at the front counter landing on registers, containers of ice cream toppings and boxes with bread.”

“Presence of insects, rodents, or other pests. Observed approximately 10 ants crawling on and in a container of honey in the prep area. Operator disposed of the container of honey.”

“Raw animal food stored over/not properly separated from ready-to-eat food. Observed raw ground beef stored over ready to eat pepperoni and salami in the walk in cooler.”

“Wall soiled with accumulated grease, food debris, and/or dust. Observed walls by the triple sink and mop sink soiled.”

Fewer storms are on the way tomorrow into the weekend. It will not be completely dry, but we will have a lot more dry time in between rounds. High temperatures will be warmer with the sunshine returning, so expect us to reach near 90°.

The first national school choice scholarship program, the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit, will launch Jan. 1, establishing a taxpayer-funded incentive for families to choose private or homeschooling in participating states. Taxpayers who donate to an organization passing out the scholarships will receive a federal tax credit, a perk expected to further fuel the conservative school choice movement.

About 96% of children in those states should be eligible, according to the department. Children attending public schools could use the scholarships for extra learning expenses.

School choice scholarships have been available for decades in conservative-led states and throughout the South, giving individual students taxpayer-funded grants ranging from a couple thousand dollars to more than $30,000 a year. In places where they are available to all students regardless of income, such as Florida and Arizona, the majority of students using the money were already in private or home school or were from affluent neighborhoods, an analysis by The Associated Press showed.

The federal program departs from most state programs by not forcing students to leave public school to qualify for the scholarship. Public school students could use the money for tutoring or special education therapies, although the Republican administration has not provided specific criteria for eligible expenses yet.

Regulators say they have set up the program in a way that will make it easier for poor students to apply, proposing to let students use proof of participation in a government assistance program in lieu of providing income documentation. Foster children would not have to provide any income verification when they apply, officials said.

Experiences with school choice scholarships in other states have shown barriers to using the programs go beyond paperwork hurdles. Many families often do not know scholarship programs exist. Federal officials have not said how they would tell taxpayers and students about the scholarships.

How the scholarship and tax credit will work

Taxpayers will have the chance to donate to a scholarship program in a participating state, even if they do not live there, starting Jan. 1. Individuals can donate up to $1,700 and receive a federal tax credit for the same amount in exchange. Federal officials propose a couple filing jointly could give as much as double that.

Scholarship organizations in each state would decide how much to grant to each child who applies, depending on available funds and student need. Children could qualify if they are in elementary through high school and their families earn up to three times the area's median income.

Scholarship recipients could use their funding to pay for religious or private school tuition, homeschooling costs, tutoring and special education therapies, books, computers and other expenses connected to enrollment or attendance, according to officials at the Treasury Department.

At least 30 states have opted in and more may sign up

States could not turn to laws or regulations to narrow the uses for the scholarships or the type of organization that can grant them, federal officials said.

But states can choose whether to participate in to the program.

According to the most recent Treasury Department list, as of mid-September these states are in for 2027: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.

Governors from Arizona, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Oregon have said their states will not join, with some arguing these programs divert resources from public schools.

More than two dozen states have yet to say what they will do. In New York, Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul has been supportive and the state is expected to sign up.

Governors deciding whether to participate face many competing objectives and interests. There is the opportunity to bring significant new education money to students who need extra support, such as tutoring or extra speech therapy that their public school does not provide. At the same time, large scholarship programs in states such as Florida and Arizona have accelerated a growing enrollment crisis in public schools.

Even so, the federal program is expected to bring taxpayer money for private school tuition to several states that have yet to embrace vouchers or education savings accounts.

In just a few years, after donations from taxpayers pick up, the IRS and the Treasury Department predict the program will direct nearly $26 billion into as many 2.2 million scholarships each year.

The federal tax-credit scholarship program was signed into law last year by President Donald Trump as his signature tax breaks and spending cuts bill. The public has 60 days to comment on the Treasury Department's proposed regulations.

_____

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

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The university said $2 billion of Griffin’s gift will support the launch of Carnegie Mellon University Miami, a new campus planned for more than 35 acres in Wynwood.

Construction is slated to begin in 2027, with the first students expected to enroll in 2028, pending regulatory approvals.

Griffin bought the land for $1.1 billion from Moishe Mana.

Mana describes selling the land as a passing of the torch, but continuing the same mission.

A $3 billion bet on Florida.@CarnegieMellon and Ken Griffin just chose Miami for a new research university built around problems that matter: human health, national security, energy, and advanced manufacturing.@EducationFL is a partner in that effort. Great campuses don’t… https://t.co/xYNpDLef8h

— Henry Mack (@HenmackIII) September 30, 2026

He also calls it the largest land assemblage deal in Florida history.

Once completed, CMU said the Miami campus will support more than 3,500 undergraduate, master’s and PhD students, nearly 300 faculty members and more than 600 staff members.

“Wynwood’s reputation as the place to be is further strengthened by the addition of CMU’s Miami campus,” Miami Commissioner Christine King, who represents District 5, said in a statement to Local 10 News. “This marks the next chapter in Wynwood’s evolution and a significant moment for our Miami community. The institution will create new opportunities for partnerships, jobs, education, and economic growth. Wynwood has always been a place where creativity and new ideas thrive. CMU’s arrival ensures this spirit will endure for generations to come.”

The remaining $1 billion of Griffin’s gift will support Carnegie Mellon’s Pittsburgh campus. Half will provide flexible support for the university’s highest priorities, while $500 million will be invested in its School of Computer Science, which will be renamed the Kenneth C. Griffin School of Computer Science.

According to CMU, the $3 billion contribution is the largest gift ever made by an individual in the history of higher education and is also Griffin’s largest-ever gift.

“What Ken is doing is monumental,” Miami-Dade Commissioner Keon Hardemon, whose district covers Wynwood, said in a statement to Local 10. “$2 billion to establish Carnegie Mellon University Miami is another powerful affirmation of Miami’s continued growth as a center for education, innovation and opportunity. As more world-class universities choose to join our community, it proves that we’re doing something right.

“Investments like this should help connect our residents, particularly our young people, to education, research, careers and the economic opportunities being created around them. We welcome Carnegie Mellon to Miami and look forward to the lasting impact this institution can have on generations to come.”

A new campus in Wynwood

CMU said its Miami campus will be designed differently from a traditional university, organizing education and research around major societal challenges rather than academic majors.

At launch, the university plans to focus on areas including human health and biological discovery, national security and strategic capabilities, energy and climate resilience, and advanced manufacturing and industrial transformation.

Interdisciplinary teams of students, researchers, industry leaders and government partners will work together on those challenges, according to the university. Humanities, arts and design will also be incorporated into the campus’ approach.

CMU said the Miami location will be developed as a comprehensive university campus where both education and research are central to its mission, rather than simply extending individual programs or research projects from its Pittsburgh campus.

Plans for the more than 35-acre Wynwood campus include space for industry research laboratories and venture studios, allowing students, faculty, industry and community partners to work alongside one another.

“We are deeply grateful to Ken Griffin for his extraordinary vision, partnership and belief in what Carnegie Mellon can achieve,” CMU President Farnam Jahanian said.

Jahanian said technological changes, including advances in artificial intelligence, require universities to rethink how students are educated, research is conducted and partnerships are formed.

“Together, we have an opportunity to extend the very qualities that have long distinguished Carnegie Mellon — our agility, creativity, interdisciplinary culture and relentless focus on impact — to build a new model for higher education that meets the urgency of this moment,” Jahanian said.

Griffin: Miami campus is a ‘generational opportunity’

Griffin said bringing Carnegie Mellon to Miami will place the city “at the heart of humanistic and scientific advancement” while expanding the university’s international reach.

“CMU Miami represents a generational opportunity to build a new center of research and intellectual life — one that will attract exceptional students, scholars, and researchers from across the globe and rank among the world’s most important academic institutions,” Griffin said.

He said the campus will also work to cultivate talent and knowledge that can launch new enterprises, contribute to Miami’s economy and community, and advance the country’s prosperity.

Griffin will also join Carnegie Mellon’s Board of Trustees.

Jahanian said the university intends to work with the Miami community as the project moves forward.

“Every great Carnegie Mellon story begins with partnership,” Jahanian said. “Our relationship with Pittsburgh has shaped CMU for more than a century, and we believe the connections we build in Miami will enrich both cities. We look forward to listening, learning and working alongside our neighbors to create new opportunities for collaboration, innovation and shared prosperity.”

The demonstrations erupted in Paris-region schools last week and have snowballed, with police making hundreds of arrests in clashes with the young protesters. Authorities have reported many dozens of injuries, including from hurled objects but also, in some suspected cases, from police riot-control projectiles.

The protests are quickly blowing up as a hot topic in the election campaign to replace President Emmanuel Macron, who is constitutionally barred from seeking a third consecutive term next May. They are also heightening pressure on the government beset by France's growing financial problems, and overshadowing the release on Thursday of its proposed cost-cutting budget for 2027.

At a Paris high school where students barricaded an entrance, 18-year-old Salama Gargouri said protesters want to target “overloaded schedules, the system, the teachers, people who don’t listen to us, the university application process.”

High school students in France often start classes at 8 a.m. and remain at school until late afternoon.

“Older people say, ‘Kids, go to school from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day.’ But you don’t know what that does mentally,” said Janna Tahari, another Paris high school student.

Arson, thrown projectiles and other violence on the margins of some protests have caused mounting injuries and recriminations. The interior minister has issued orders for police to break up blockades that prevent pupils from attending classes and to put a stop to violence and vandalism.

Juliette Estiville, a high school Spanish teacher, said that the repression of the protests led her to join the students.

“So, I’m here just to provide protection, to form a barrier between the police and the students,” she said. “And indeed, today went well, it’s going well, but I really think that the teachers who come to the blockades are really just there to protect our young people.”

Education Minister Edouard Geffray said Thursday's violence included a school set on fire and staff doused with gasoline. He said he issued instructions that classes be held remotely when blockades or damage to schools put students at risk.

"Violence will not deprive our students of their fundamental right to education,” Geffray said in a post on X.

Far-left presidential hopeful Jean-Luc Mélenchon has denounced the government response as repressive. His critics have accused Mélenchon's party of inciting violence and using the unrest to score points ahead of the presidential election.

The office of Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said he asked ministers to cancel any planned official trips in the coming days, to enable authorities and police to focus on dealing with the demonstrations.

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Samuel Petrequin in Paris contributed to this report

Is he done with Portugal? Or will he make peace with his coach and be back for the next international break?

There were few answers on Thursday, a day after the all-time leading scorer in men's international soccer decided to walk out on Portugal’s training camp in a decision announced a few hours after Jesus said the star forward would not start the game against Denmark in the Nations League.

The 41-year-old Ronaldo, who played in his sixth World Cup this year, only said that in due course he would “tell the Portuguese people the truth about the reasons” behind his departure.

The federation also gave few details, saying only that Ronaldo left the training camp and the rest of the team would remain focused on Thursday's game against Denmark.

There was already a new holder of Ronaldo’s famous No. 7 jersey, with Rafael Leão set to wear it on Thursday. Because of UEFA rules, Portugal had to assign the number to another player after Ronaldo left the roster. Other players have worn the No. 7 in Ronaldo's absence in the past.

In Portugal, the news of Ronaldo's departure fueled speculation that the country's biggest sporting star, who had already hinted that this is his last season in soccer, would not play again for the national team.

“Is this the end?” read Thursday's front-page headline of the JM newspaper based in Ronaldo's native Madeira.

“A sad farewell,” the Portuguese sports paper A Bola said.

“CR7 turns his back on the national team,” read the headline on the O Jogo newspaper.

Portuguese media also reported that Portugal Prime Minister Luís Montenegro got involved in the situation, having talked individually to Ronaldo, Jesus and soccer federation president Pedro Proença.

Possible suspension for Ronaldo?

Regardless of Ronaldo's and the federation's decisions going forward, the star player could possibly face a harsh punishment for leaving the training camp.

The federation's disciplinary regulations say that any player who “abandons or fails to appear” without justification at a training session, match or activity of the national teams, or any activity related to representing the federation, “shall be sanctioned with a suspension of one to six months,” in addition to a fine.

It says the “absence or abandonment shall result in the player’s automatic preventive suspension.”

Ronaldo did tell the federation that he was leaving, but it wasn't clear whether the decision would be considered justified in accordance with the federation's regulations.

Neither the federation nor Ronaldo's representatives immediately responded to requests for comment by The Associated Press on Thursday.

Next steps for the Portugal star

Ronaldo reportedly traveled to Madrid, his home for many years while playing for Real Madrid and where he usually stays when not playing with Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia.

His social media post offered few hints about what's next.

“Following the national team coach’s news conference, and after a conversation with the president of the Portuguese football federation, I decided to leave the national team’s training camp,” Ronaldo said.

He ended his message by saying that “now is the time to wish good luck to Portugal and to all my teammates.”

Many had been expecting Ronaldo to retire from the national team after the World Cup. And while confirmed he wouldn't appear at another World Cup, he vowed to continue playing and pursuing the milestone of 1,000 career goals. He currently stands at 979, with an international men's record of 146 goals coming for Portugal.

Ronaldo recently said that this Saudi Pro League season is likely to be the last of his professional career. Al-Nassr’s next match is Oct. 9.

Coach dismisses talk of a feud with Ronaldo

Jesus, who coached Ronaldo at Al-Nassr last season when they won the Saudi Arabian league title together, took over from Roberto Martínez after Portugal's round-of-16 elimination at the World Cup. He said Wednesday in the pre-game news conference that he was not planning to start Ronaldo in the Nations League match against Denmark. But he dismissed the notion there was a feud between him and Ronaldo, and said the player told him that he would accept any decision he would make.

“It seems like there was an issue between us, but there was no issue,” Jesus said before Ronaldo announced his decision to leave.

Ronaldo didn't play Sunday in Portugal’s 2-1 win over Norway. He hadn't trained with the rest of the group since, sparking widespread rumors about a possible spat with Jesus. The coach said Ronaldo would practice normally on Wednesday, but he ended up deciding to leave.

Jesus acknowledged that someone with the stature of Ronaldo deserved a different type of attention from coaches, but emphasized that the “rules are the same for everyone.”

Jesus admitted that he told Ronaldo that he would play at least a few minutes against Norway, but changed his mind because of the game's circumstances. He said he's the one making the team choices and "no player will ever make a decision for me.”

He said it was a mistake to send Ronaldo to warm up for as long as he did, and then not use him against Norway. Jesus added that “any player” would be upset about that.

Ronaldo started in Portugal’s 1-0 win over Wales last Thursday but was substituted in the 67th minute. On Tuesday, he posted on Instagram a photo of him wearing the kit accompanied by the country’s flag and a heart emoji.

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See AP’s full soccer coverage here

One of the changes involves license plate frames. Drivers could be pulled over if a frame covers the registration decal in the upper-right corner of the license plate or blocks the plate number.

Another new law strengthens penalties in certain animal cruelty cases. It is now a third-degree felony for an adult to commit aggravated animal cruelty in the presence of a minor or force a minor to commit an act of aggravated animal cruelty.

School safety and criminal penalties

A new school safety law makes it a second-degree felony to fire a weapon or firearm within 1,000 feet of a school.

House Bill 397 also creates a new criminal offense involving suspects who have been arrested and are released from custody before trial. The law applies when a suspect violates an order prohibiting contact with the alleged victim.

Changes for crashes and rental applications

Drivers involved in crashes will also see a change in the amount of estimated property damage that requires law enforcement involvement.

That threshold has increased from $500 to $2,000.

Another new law targets false information on rental applications.

It is now a third-degree felony to make a false statement about a person’s identity on a rental application, present counterfeit documents to a landlord or impersonate another person.

She got neither.

Wang Xiyu of China defeated Eala 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the semifinals on Thursday to set up a final against fellow Chinese Zhang Shuai. Zhang defeated Yuliya Putintseva of Kazakhstan 6-4, 6-2.

In addition to the loss, Eala could still face a $10,000 fine for withdrawing from the China Open in Beijing — a mandatory WTA 1000-level event — to represent the Philippines at the Asian Games.

“Yeah, of course — disappointed,” Eala said. "It’s hard right after the match. I will have to process the emotions and process the match.”

Eala led 5-0 in the first set, but Wang closed to 5-3 and seemed to gain an edge before Eala took the set.

“I think it happened — momentum shift happened,” Eala said. "Everyone’s constantly trying to find a way. So I think she played really well today.”

The 21-year-old described losing to the 85th-ranked Wang as a learning moment. Eala is ranked 18th and is one of the rising stars in the game.

“I just think I take away a great experience," Eala said ”Of course, some lessons that I have to process."

Eala defeated Wang 6-4, 6-3 on clay five months ago at the Italian Open, their only previous meeting.

It was different this time on a hard surface.

Both Eala and the other semifinal loser, Putintseva, were awarded bronze medals.

“First of all, I believed in myself and believed that I could do it,” the 25-year-old Wang said. "Step by step, I was able to beat her.”

In the final Wang faces Zhang, who is 37 and has been a mentor to many younger Chinese players. She has won two Grand Slam doubles titles and could land a berth in the Olympics by beating her younger student.

“Of course, this is definitely one of my motivations,” Wang said of the Olympics. “But I hope I can focus on every single point — every single strike of the ball.”

___

SNTV video journalist Nicky Zhu contributed to this report.

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See full AP coverage of Asian sports here

The Labor Department said Thursday that initial jobless claims ticked down to 197,000 from a revised 198,000 the week before. The four-week average of claims, which smooths out week-to-week volatility, dropped by 2,500 to 200,000.

Claims for jobless benefits are a proxy for layoffs, and economists watch them because they can be a sign of where the job market is headed. So far this year, claims have mostly stayed below 220,000 — historically low.

The American job market has remained sturdy despite higher energy prices that have squeezed businesses and consumers since the fighting with Iran began Feb. 28.

Layoffs are low. Businesses, remembering the labor shortages that followed the end of pandemic lockdowns, are reluctant to let go of staff. They’re hiring — but modestly by the standards of recent years.

So far this year, employers — companies, government agencies and nonprofits — have been adding an average of 80,000 jobs a month, including a surprising 162,000 in August. That is an improvement on a lackluster 2025 when monthly job creation averaged 9,700 as high interest rates and President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policies discouraged hiring.

The Labor Department will release the jobs report for September next week. It’s expected to show that employers added 90,000 jobs and that the unemployment rate remained low at 4.1%, according to a survey of forecasters by the data firm FactSet.

Hiring remains well below the 166,000 monthly jobs created, on average, in 2023 and 2024, and the 491,000 a month recorded during the 2021-2022 hiring boom that followed COVID-19 lockdowns.

The new numbers come as Trump and Vice President JD Vance hit the campaign trail on Thursday, heading to heavily Republican areas to shore up lagging enthusiasm in their party ahead of next month’s midterm elections. Trump will go to Texas and Oklahoma while Vance stumps in Florida, areas where GOP candidates were once expected to glide to victory but are now facing tougher races.

The Latest:

DC judge permanently dismisses case charging ex-Olympian with vandalizing Reflecting Pool

D.C. Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman dismissed the case against David Hearn with “prejudice,” which would block U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office from refiling the felony charge under political pressure from Trump.

Hearn’s lawyers say Trump administration officials have continued to falsely accuse the Maryland resident of vandalizing the reflecting pool despite Pirro’s decision to drop the case on July 31. Trump responded by saying Pirro “choked” and “folded like an umbrella.”

In an embarrassing setback for the White House, Pirro informed the court that new evidence produced by the Interior Department showed the damage resulted from a botched installation by a contractor rushing to complete the project in time for this summer’s America 250 celebration in Washington.

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Rising bond yields rattle markets worldwide and overshadow hopes for AI stocks

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 5.32% on Thursday, near its highest level since 2002. It was less than 4% before the war with Iran began. The higher borrowing costs are helping to overshadow optimism that the artificial-intelligence industry can keep climbing.

The S&P 500 is heading toward its seventh loss in the last eight days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq composite are trading downward. The losses were even sharper in Europe, where bond yields saw a significant jump overnight.

High yields slow the overall economy by making it more expensive for everyone to borrow money, while undercutting prices for stocks and other investments. Worries about high inflation are festering as oil prices climbed again Thursday. The price for a barrel of Brent crude jumped 3.3% to $101.24, swinging on uncertainty about any end to the U.S. war with Iran.

Renee Good’s family describes a Trump administration conspiracy

The civil rights suit says the shots fired by Jonathan Ross, the immigration officer who killed Good, “were the predictable and intended product of the operation.”

A news release from the family’s lawyers says the lawsuit describes as a “carefully planned, coordinated effort between senior federal officials and private actors to make two ethnic communities — Minnesotans of Somali and Hispanic descent and origin — the object of aggression and abduction, and to silence by intimidation, arrest and violence the neighbors and allies of those targeted communities who observed, documented and warned of that campaign.”

The lawsuit also alleges “collaboration of federal agencies and individuals with private entities for an operation with discriminatory design, racially targeted pursuit and seizure of individuals without regard to their legal status, and each defendant’s participation in the conspiracy.”

The Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the lawsuits.

Renee Good’s family sues US government and immigration officials

The family of the 37-year-old woman killed by an immigration officer during a federal crackdown in Minneapolis is alleging wrongful death and other violations of federal law.

The two lawsuits were filed by Good’s partner, Becca Good, and Renee’s brother Brent Ganger. One says her death was caused by battery, assault, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence. The other alleges a conspiracy to interfere with civil rights.

The named defendants include Jonathan Ross, the immigration officer who shot her; White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller; former Homeland Security head Kristi Noem; former U.S. Border Patrol commander-at-large Gregory Bovino, Corey Lewandowski, President Donald Trump’s campaign manager, and others.

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Supreme Court grants review of Trump administration’s mandatory detention policy for immigrants

The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to review a Trump administration policy denying bond hearings for immigrants as the government carries out a sweeping immigration crackdown.

The justices will consider whether immigrants who have been living in the U.S. have a right to a hearing to determine if they should remain detained while challenging their possible deportation.

Appeals court judges from nine of 11 federal circuits have concluded that detaining immigrants without a bond hearing violates federal law.

Those decisions conflict with rulings by the 5th and 8th circuits, which held that immigrants accused of illegally entering and remaining in the U.S. must be detained while their deportation cases are pending.

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Trump says he’d pardon administration officials

In the Time magazine interview, the president indicated he’s open to issuing pardons for members of his administration.

“Yeah, sure I’d do that,” he said.

Scrutiny is sure to ramp up on key members of the Trump administration should Democrats take one or both chambers of Congress in this fall’s midterm elections.

Trump justified his thinking by pointing to former President Joe Biden’s preemptive pardons he issued for key government officials and family members as he was departing the White House.

Trump exaggerated what Biden did, saying: “Sleepy Joe Biden, he gave pardons to everyone.”

Trump says his low poll numbers are ‘fake numbers’

The president said in an interview with Time magazine conducted on Monday that “pollsters are corrupt” and the bad polls “are fake.”

Trump, in the interview published Thursday, said his own pollster told him his numbers “are much higher than the numbers.”

“I would beat anybody running today by 20 points,” he said.

Trump dismisses reports that Netanyahu was warned about Hamas operation days before Oct. 7 attack

The president said in an interview with Time magazine conducted on Monday that he was hearing about those weeks-old reports for the first time that day and said, “I can’t imagine this.”

If Netanyahu had known about it, “he would have done something about it. Certainly, he would have had people at least alert,” Trump said in the interview published Thursday.

An Israeli newspaper reported in early September that Netanyahu was directly warned by the president of the United Arab Emirates that Hamas was planning a major offensive just days before the militant group attacked on Oct. 7, 2023.

Trump dodges on whether Netanyahu deserves reelection

In the Time magazine interview, Trump repeatedly avoiding answering directly whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be reelected later this month.

“I can only say that I’m not involved in politics anymore,” said the U.S. president, who is ramping up his campaigning for Republicans in the November midterms.

Trump then touted his own record on Israel rather than answering directly whether Netanyahu should be reelected, despite several attempts from Time journalists.

Trump finally answered: “Well, people have written off Bibi many, many times, just like they’ve written off me many, many times. I wouldn’t underestimate Bibi.”

Of Netanyahu’s opponent, Gadi Eisenkot, Trump said: “I don’t hear bad things about him.”

More bombing of Iran ‘possible’ after midterms, Trump says

Trump said in a Time magazine interview published Thursday morning that it’s “possible” he’ll ramp up bombing in Iran after the Nov. 3 midterms.

When pressed further by Time journalists, Trump continued: “I can’t tell you that because look, you know, you’re asking, where are you going to bomb?”

He said in the interview, conducted Sept. 28, that he rejected the latest ceasefire proposal from Iran because “things that I wouldn’t have approved a year ago I wouldn’t have today.”

Trump cited as an example an offer from Iran to “open up the Strait” of Hormuz, but said the overall proposal was “not good enough.”

Inside Ken Paxton’s jet-setting lifestyle: California wineries, European hot spots and ski resorts

An Associated Press records review shows Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton has traveled frequently and spent less time in Texas as the state’s attorney general since becoming a star in Trump’s MAGA universe.

When the conservative firebrand launched his Senate campaign on Fox News, he cleared his calendar for a trip to the Masters golf tournament in Georgia that cost Texas taxpayers at least $25,000. Overall since assuming office in 2015, Paxton left about 730 workdays blank on his official calendars and took over 275 out-of-state trips to places such as California wine country, Caribbean resorts and European tourism hot spots.

Records show Paxton’s travel cost Texas taxpayers a minimum of $1.9 million to cover expenses charged by his security detail. It’s unclear how Paxton has financed much of his portion of the travel.

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Trump praises Boeing-made FlyDubai aircraft for remaining airborne

The president, in an early morning social media post, credited the “GREAT Boeing Company” with building a plane “that was able to withstand G Forces and Strain far beyond what it was designed and expected to do.”

On Wednesday, a copilot stabbed his captain and attempted to crash a flight bound for Israel from the United Arab Emirates that was carrying 174 people. Passengers, most of them Israelis, feared for their lives as the FlyDubai aircraft lost half its altitude in about a minute.

Aviation experts were also surprised the plane did not crash after a descent so extreme that most of the rudder was ripped off the tail.

“It is about time that The Boeing Company, which builds, by far, the finest commercial airliners in the sky, was given credit for this airplane’s incredible ‘genius!’” Trump added in his posting about the Arlington, Virginia-based aircraft manufacturer.

Trump’s economic approval hits a new low as midterms approach

Just 26% approve of Trump’s handling of the economy overall, marking a new low in AP-NORC polling.

Trump’s numbers on the economy represent a 14-point drop from March 2025, just after he took office for the second time. His struggles on the issue mark a significant departure from his first term, when the economy was often a point of strength.

Trump’s low grade on the economy rivals President Joe Biden’s economic approval rating in June 2022, when there was record-high inflation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But Americans were less likely to blame Biden in the lead-up to that year’s midterm elections, a sharp contrast to the solid majority who hold Trump responsible now.

Costs drag on Trump as the economic pain keeps coming

Americans have grown more worried about being able to afford basics like groceries and gas over the last few months, the new AP-NORC poll shows.

About half of U.S. adults say they are “extremely” or “very” concerned about being able to afford gas in the coming months, up from 39% in July.

And about half are highly concerned about being able to afford food.

Pedro Sanchez, a 52-year-old from California who voted for Trump told the AP: “I used to have a lot more disposable income. I don’t have that anymore. It’s gotten eaten up because of all these increases in the cost of everything.”

AP-NORC Poll: Most Republicans now disapprove of Trump on costs

Americans are deeply frustrated with rising prices under President Trump, according to a new AP-NORC poll.

Only 17% of U.S. adults approve of the president’s handling of the cost of living. That frustration is also reaching Republicans. About 6 in 10 Republicans now disapprove of how Trump is handling costs, up from about half in April.

Robert Gault, a 66-year-old from Bradford, Pennsylvania, told the AP about Trump: “He said, ’Make America Great Again.′ And I have not seen him do that.”

Despite the overall frustration, about two-thirds of Republicans don’t blame Trump personally for high prices and say factors outside of his control are more to blame.

But Americans overall disagree. A majority, 65%, of U.S. adults blame Trump’s policies for persistently high costs more than factors outside of his control.

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Trump and Vance hit the campaign trail in deep-red areas where GOP candidates seek a boost

President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance will both hit the campaign trail on Thursday, but they will be heading to heavily Republican areas to shore up lagging enthusiasm in their party ahead of next month’s midterm elections.

Trump’s travel on Thursday to Texas and Oklahoma kicks off what the president said will be a 32-day campaign blitz leading up to Nov. 3. Vance will be stumping in Florida, putting the Republican Party’s highest-ranking officials in areas where GOP candidates once expected to have glide paths to victory but are now facing tougher races.

Republicans have expressed growing pessimism about their chances in the election, which will determine control of Congress, as the president has repeatedly dismissed concerns about high costs and gas prices as his unpopular war in Iran drags on.

According to Trump, his party’s headwinds are merely a matter of poor public relations about a job he says is well done.

“We’re not getting the word out,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “I mean, we’re just not getting it.”

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Todos los carriles en dirección este del Dolphin Expressway cerrarán en la Northwest 17th Avenue a partir de las 10 p.m. del viernes, y se espera que permanezcan cerrados hasta las 10 a.m. del sábado.

El cierre permitirá a los trabajadores colocar de forma segura una estructura de acero de refuerzo para un soporte de puente sobre la autopista.

Los conductores que viajen hacia el este deberán salir en la Northwest 17th Avenue y seguir hacia el sur, cruzando la Northwest Seventh Street. Desde ahí, pueden girar a la izquierda en la Southwest First Street, avanzar hacia el este y girar a la derecha en South Miami Avenue para tomar las rampas de acceso a la Interestatal 95 en dirección norte o sur.

Quienes se dirijan a Biscayne Boulevard o al MacArthur Causeway pueden seguir por la Southwest First Street, girar a la izquierda en Biscayne Boulevard y tomar la rampa de entrada al MacArthur Causeway en la Northeast 11th Terrace.

Los conductores que circulen por la Northwest 12th Avenue y quieran llegar al Dolphin Expressway en dirección este, la I-95, Biscayne Boulevard o el MacArthur Causeway pueden seguir hacia el sur por la Northwest 12th Avenue, girar a la izquierda en la Southwest First Street y seguir los desvíos señalizados.

También cerrarán los carriles hacia el oeste

El tráfico en dirección oeste de la SR 836 también se verá afectado el viernes por la noche.

Dos carriles en dirección oeste cerrarán a partir de las 10 p.m., y a las 11 p.m. se cerrarán por completo todos los carriles en esa dirección entre la Northwest 12th Avenue y la Northwest 17th Avenue.

Está previsto que este cierre se mantenga hasta las 8 a.m. del sábado.

Los conductores serán desviados por la rampa de salida de la Northwest 12th Avenue, donde deberán girar a la izquierda. Luego pueden girar a la derecha en la Northwest Seventh Street y nuevamente a la derecha en la Northwest 17th Avenue, para seguir hacia el norte y volver a tomar el Dolphin Expressway en dirección oeste.

Cambio temporal en el horario de los puentes levadizos

Las obras también obligarán a modificar temporalmente el horario de funcionamiento de los puentes de la Southwest First Street y de West Flagler Street sobre el río Miami.

El sábado, de 6 a.m. a 10 a.m., ambos puentes se abrirán a la hora en punto y a la media hora.

Fuera de ese periodo de cuatro horas, los puentes funcionarán con su horario habitual.

Las embarcaciones públicas de Estados Unidos, los remolcadores, solos o con remolque, y las embarcaciones en peligro podrán pasar en cualquier momento.

El cambio temporal en el horario de los puentes se hace para apoyar el cierre del Dolphin Expressway. La Guardia Costera de EE.UU. también anunciará el cambio a través de sus avisos a los navegantes.

Según el Departamento de Transporte de Florida, las obras forman parte del proyecto de diseño y construcción I-395/SR 836/I-95, que busca aumentar la capacidad, mejorar el flujo del tráfico y la seguridad, y facilitar el acceso a lo largo de las tres autopistas.

Video obtained by Local 10 News shows North Miami Beach police entering an apartment and finding four children home alone while their mother was away on a three-day cruise to the Bahamas, according to investigators.

Nathalie Belizaire, 29, was arrested Monday after returning to PortMiami from a cruise to the Bahamas. She faces four counts of child neglect without great bodily harm, jail records show.

Belizaire told reporters after leaving jail Tuesday night that arrangements had been made for someone to care for the children. She also accused the father of her youngest child of setting her up.

The father, speaking to Local 10 News by phone through a translator, gave a different account.

He said Belizaire contacted him Thursday and asked whether he could watch their 2-month-old daughter. He said he told her he could not and understood that she planned to ask her mother to care for the children.

The children have different fathers, according to police.

The father said he later contacted the grandmother and learned she did not have the children. He then went to the family’s apartment in the area of Northeast 15th Avenue and 170th Street.

He said he did not have a key but could see the children inside the apartment. Video he provided to Local 10 News shows the children apparently watching television inside.

Concerned about his infant daughter, he called police.

North Miami Beach police said officers responded Saturday and forced their way into the apartment. Officers reported finding four children, including the 2-month-old, inside. Some of the children were found “hiding” in a bathroom, according to the arrest report.

Police said Belizaire had left Friday and was expected to return Monday.

The mother was aboard the Carnival Conquest, a cruise ship that sailed from Miami to the Bahamas, according to authorities. Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputies waited for her at PortMiami when the ship returned Monday, the arrest report states.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection held Belizaire before North Miami Beach police took her into custody, according to the report.

Belizaire’s public defender told a judge Tuesday that she denied the allegations.

During a hearing, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Mindy Glazer questioned why the four children had been left alone.

“The poor kids were home alone,” Glazer said.

Glazer issued four stay-away orders and set Belizaire’s bond at $10,000. Miami-Dade County jail records show she was booked Monday at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

The father said he did not intend to set Belizaire up and contacted police because he was concerned about his daughter.

He said he did not know who was caring for the other children after learning that their grandmother did not have them.

The case has since spread widely across social media, with questions about the circumstances surrounding the police call and Belizaire’s claim that someone was supposed to be watching the children.

Local 10 News reached out to Belizaire for comment Wednesday, but she declined to speak.

Un video obtenido en exclusiva por Local 10 News muestra a agentes de la policía de North Miami Beach entrando a un apartamento y encontrando a cuatro niños solos en casa mientras su madre estaba en un crucero de tres días a las Bahamas, según los investigadores.

Nathalie Belizaire, de 29 años, fue arrestada el lunes al regresar a PortMiami de un crucero a las Bahamas. Según los registros de la cárcel, enfrenta cuatro cargos de negligencia infantil sin daño corporal grave.

Al salir de la cárcel el martes por la noche, Belizaire dijo a los periodistas que había hecho arreglos para que alguien cuidara a los niños. También acusó al padre de su hija menor de haberle tendido una trampa.

El padre, quien habló con Local 10 News por teléfono a través de un traductor, dio una versión distinta.

Dijo que Belizaire se comunicó con él el jueves para preguntarle si podía cuidar a la hija de ambos, de 2 meses. Según él, le respondió que no podía y entendió que ella pensaba pedirle a su madre que cuidara a los niños.

Según la policía, los niños son de padres distintos.

El padre contó que después se comunicó con la abuela y supo que ella no tenía a los niños. Entonces fue al apartamento de la familia, en la zona del Northeast 15th Avenue y la 170th Street.

Dijo que no tenía llave, pero podía ver a los niños dentro del apartamento. Un video que entregó a Local 10 News muestra a los niños, aparentemente, viendo televisión adentro.

Preocupado por su bebé, llamó a la policía.

La policía de North Miami Beach indicó que los agentes acudieron el sábado y entraron a la fuerza al apartamento. Según el informe de arresto, encontraron adentro a cuatro niños, entre ellos la bebé de 2 meses, y algunos estaban “escondidos” en un baño.

La policía dijo que Belizaire se había ido el viernes y tenía previsto regresar el lunes.

Según las autoridades, la madre viajaba a bordo del Carnival Conquest, un crucero que zarpó de Miami rumbo a las Bahamas. Agentes de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade la esperaron en PortMiami cuando el barco regresó el lunes, según el informe de arresto.

La Oficina de Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza de EE.UU. retuvo a Belizaire antes de que la policía de North Miami Beach la arrestara, según el informe.

El defensor público de Belizaire le dijo el martes a una jueza que su clienta niega las acusaciones.

Durante una audiencia, la jueza de circuito de Miami-Dade Mindy Glazer cuestionó por qué los cuatro niños habían quedado solos.

“Los pobres niños estaban solos en casa”, dijo Glazer.

Glazer emitió cuatro órdenes de alejamiento y fijó la fianza de Belizaire en $10,000. Según los registros de la cárcel del condado Miami-Dade, fue procesada el lunes en el centro correccional Turner Guilford Knight.

El padre dijo que no tenía intención de tenderle una trampa a Belizaire y que llamó a la policía porque estaba preocupado por su hija.

Añadió que no sabía quién estaba cuidando a los otros niños después de enterarse de que no estaban con su abuela.

Desde entonces, el caso se ha difundido ampliamente en redes sociales, con preguntas sobre las circunstancias de la llamada a la policía y sobre la afirmación de Belizaire de que alguien debía estar cuidando a los niños.

Local 10 News intentó comunicarse el miércoles con Belizaire para obtener sus comentarios, pero ella se negó a hablar.

The race pits current mayor and lawyer Howard Weinberg against real estate broker Alberto Zaltzberg.

Weinberg, the incumbent, is serving his first four-year term. He faces challenger Zaltzberg in November. Municipal elections in Aventura are non-partisan.

Weinberg says his record on property taxes shows that he knows people are struggling with the cost of living in Aventura.

“We have one of the lowest property tax rates in all of Florida. If people look at their tax rate and I tell them it’s 1.72, there are cities where it’s 6,” Weinberg said.

Asked about keeping buildings and condominiums safe, Weinberg said the city has a strong inspection process.

“We have a very robust inspection system,” he said. “We get the reports, we read the reports, we send our inspectors out there.”

Weinberg said the first thing he would do if re-elected would directly affect residents’ wallets.

“There will never be an increase in our property tax rate as long as I’m your mayor,” Weinberg said. “It’s the very first promise I made. Promise made, promise kept.”

Zaltzberg, meanwhile, said Aventura has been his home for 15 years and he is ready to lead. If Zaltzberg wins, he would become Aventura’s first Latino mayor.

Asked how he would make buildings and condos as safe as possible, Zaltzberg said the city should take a more active role.

“The first thing the city can do is be more proactive with the inspections, create more control over the boards to do what they need to do,” he said.

Asked what he would do on his first day in office to give people relief in their wallets, Zaltzberg said the city’s spending and policies need review.

“We need to review all topics and listen to people on what we can cut or change,” he said.

Election Day is Nov. 3.

Correction: An earlier version of this article and video erroneously referred to Weinberg as a Democrat and Zaltzberg as a Republican. We apologize for this error.

Experts say they’re increasingly seeing people use the plans for everyday expenses like groceries, bills, transportation and, sometimes rent.

“It has been very hard out there for a lot of people," said Sara Rathner, NerdWallet’s credit card expert. “It’s a tough job market, and it’s a rough economy, and the cost of the things that we buy every day has been going up, in some cases more than people’s incomes.”

Pay-in-four plans, which generally allow consumers to pay for purchases in four installments over six weeks, accounted for about half of the $160 billion in buy now, pay later spending last year, according to the study. Use of those plans has increased nearly 80% since 2023.

The rest of the plans were either longer- or shorter-term loans.

How consumers are using buy now pay later

When Elizabeth Brown first used buy now, pay later, she had just started living by herself and was earning a salary that made it hard to afford basic expenses. She would buy groceries and, once she got her paycheck, pay for them through buy now, pay later. Six years later, things haven’t changed much.

“I used buy now, pay later so I can have the furniture I need. I have groceries in my fridge because of it. I don’t necessarily feel shameful for using it because at the end it’s very beneficial to me at this point of my life,” said Brown, 26, of Columbia, South Carolina, who works as a clinical service member at an optical store.

Buy now, pay later products have evolved. Rent now, pay later services are one form, which break rent into multiple payments.

“It isn’t really just a convenience element anymore; it really is becoming a cash flow challenge,” said Mark Elliott, chief customer officer at Happen Bank, a financial services company formerly known as Lending Club.

Jordan Williams, 28, first used buy now, pay later to get concert tickets to Hozier. Then, when she experienced financial hardship after her daughter was born, she started leaning on it to pay for some of her groceries.

“There’s just not a lot of resources, and that makes me angry because this shouldn’t be something I have to do," said Williams, a lecturer and content creator from Greensboro, North Carolina. "We should be able to just afford groceries. I feel angry and then I feel embarrassed.”

For a long time, Williams felt ashamed about having to use buy now, pay later for basic expenses. She now feels less alone after talking with other people who also have debt.

If you're going to use buy now, pay later plans, here are some expert recommendations:

Read the fine print

The most well-known buy now, pay later product is pay-in-four, where you can pay back what you owe in four payments, one every two weeks, with a 0% annual percentage rate, or APR. However, not every buy now, pay later loan has the same terms. Before you commit to buying something using buy now, pay later, Ed deHaan, a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, recommends that you read your contract carefully.

“So-called buy now, pay later products are popping up that are not good deals at all," deHaan said. "Some of them charge hefty fees, both upfront and if you miss a payment."

In general, if you miss a buy now, pay later payment, you can face fees, interest or the possibility of being banned from using the services in the future.

Know how it impacts your credit score

In the past, buy now, pay later loans didn’t impact your credit score, but that has changed. Buy now, pay later agencies now report credit lending activity to one of the three major credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

“Entering into a buy now, pay later plan for now isn’t going to affect your credit in any way, but missing a payment can, so that’s where you really want to be careful,” Rathner said.

Credit reporting depends on the company and its policies. For example, both Affirm and Klarna report to Experian and TransUnion. Afterpay does not report to any credit bureau.

Only borrow what you can pay back

Before purchasing something with buy now, pay later, deHaan recommends pausing to consider whether it’s an amount you can pay back.

“The general advice for credit is that it's very easy to spend and hard to pay off," deHaan said. “And most of us, many of us, are not good at making good predictions about what we will be able to pay in the future.”

When using buy now, pay later, Brown set herself a limit of $100 a month across payments, and she avoids signing up for payments every two weeks and instead chooses the monthly payment options.

Avoid stacking plans

As with credit cards, you can sign up for multiple buy now, pay later plans. These loans can quickly balloon until they become unmanageable. If you don’t want to risk snowballing into debt, avoid stacking buy-now, pay later loans, said Carla Sanchez-Adams, senior attorney at the National Consumer Law Center.

“Avoid multiple purchases because then it gets really hard to track, especially if they’re with different companies,” Sanchez-Adams said.

If you have to utilize multiple loans, make sure you keep track of the payment amounts and dates so you avoid late fees, she added.

Seek out additional resources

Looking into additional resources such as food banks, SNAP or hardship help programs in your area can be helpful, Rathner said.

“If you are stretched thin for affording food and going into debt to do so, it could be time to seek out additional help," she said. “So this is hopefully less of a struggle for you and your family while you’re going through this difficult time.”

Seek help from a nonprofit credit counseling agency

If you've reached a point where you have too many buy now, pay later loans and maybe some credit card debt too, it might be time to seek help from a credit counseling agency. Two well-known resources for finding nonprofit credit counseling agencies are the National Foundation for Credit Counseling and the Financial Counseling Association of America. Both can help you connect with certified agencies and counselors.

“You have financial stress, you have work stress, you have family stress," Rathner said. “Get help with the financial stress because that can help you feel more in control of this area of your life. And it can help take one step at a time toward paying down your debts and feeling more in control.”

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The Associated Press receives support from Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.

Democratic Majority for Israel is calling on the party to continue providing security and military assistance to the country while supporting a negotiated path to statehood for both Israelis and Palestinians and a future for Gaza that doesn't include Hamas.

It notably does not insist on unyielding support for Israel, acknowledging that “Israel’s security does not require support for every decision made by an Israeli government.” The document also calls on Israel to “act decisively against settler threats, intimidation, and violence.”

The framework is being released at a sensitive moment for Democrats following a primary season in which voters from New York to Michigan embraced candidates who backed positions including ending military aid to Israel. If Democrats retake control of the U.S. House or Senate in next month's elections, these candidates could play a significant role in shaping the debate over America's posture toward Israel.

The issue could also play prominently in the early stages of the next presidential campaign, which could begin shortly after the midterms.

Democratic Majority for Israel's chief executive, Brian Romick, said his goal is to provide a “helpful guide for our mainstream Democratic candidates on how to engage with a complicated issue."

“It's important to remind Democrats and Americans that there's value in the U.S.-Israel relationship,” he said. “We thought it was important to kind of lay out a forward-looking vision.”

The question is whether such a framework will go very far in shaping the views of Democrats, who are increasingly skeptical of Israel.

About 58% of Democrats said the U.S. is “too supportive” of the Israelis, according to a June survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, up from 45% in January 2024. Roughly half of Democrats believe that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians during the war with Hamas, an accusation Israel rejects.

Former Obama administration chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, who has argued Democrats need to return to the political center ahead of launching a potential presidential bid, went to Israel in July and delivered a blistering speech warning the country was at risk of becoming a “territorial pariah." He specifically called out Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has closely aligned himself with President Donald Trump, a Republican.

Emanuel, who's also a former congressman, Chicago mayor and U.S. ambassador, blamed Netanyahu for driving Israel to a “dead end,” emboldened by poor decisions from American leaders.

The framework from Democratic Majority for Israel takes a less strident view on Netanyahu, who faces another election this month. “Support for Israel,” the group argued, “transcends any one Israeli government.”

The group took a similarly long view on military and security assistance for Israel, arguing it shouldn't be stopped now even as it acknowledged the possibility of change in the future.

“Over time, and by mutual agreement, today’s partnership should be capable of evolving beyond the traditional assistance framework toward an increasingly reciprocal relationship centered on joint investment, innovation, and technological advantage,” the framework reads. “The objective should be to build the partnership both countries will need to confront the threats and seize the opportunities of the coming decades.”

Daniel Shapiro, the former U.S. ambassador to Israel under President Barack Obama, acknowledged “strong, passionate views” on the issue.

“Clearly, not everyone will agree with every aspect” of the framework, he said. “But I think there’s a lot there that many Democrats would find speaks to them.”

All eastbound lanes of the Dolphin Expressway will close at Northwest 17th Avenue beginning at 10 p.m. Friday, and are expected to remain closed until 10 a.m. Saturday.

The closure will allow crews to safely place a reinforcing steel cage for a bridge support structure over the roadway.

Eastbound drivers will be directed to exit at Northwest 17th Avenue and continue south across Northwest Seventh Street. From there, drivers can turn left onto Southwest First Street, travel east and turn right onto South Miami Avenue before accessing ramps for northbound or southbound Interstate 95.

Drivers heading toward Biscayne Boulevard or the MacArthur Causeway can remain on Southwest First Street before turning left onto Biscayne Boulevard and connecting with the MacArthur Causeway entrance ramp at Northeast 11th Terrace.

Drivers traveling on Northwest 12th Avenue who want to reach the Dolphin Expressway eastbound, I-95, Biscayne Boulevard or the MacArthur Causeway can continue south on Northwest 12th Avenue before turning left onto Southwest First Street and following the designated detours.

Westbound lanes on the Dolphin Expressway also closing

Westbound SR 836 will also be affected Friday night.

Two westbound lanes will close beginning at 10 p.m., followed by a full closure of all westbound lanes between Northwest 12th and Northwest 17th avenues at 11 p.m.

The westbound closure is scheduled to remain in place until 8 a.m. Saturday.

Drivers will be directed to exit using the Northwest 12th Avenue ramp and turn left onto Northwest 12th Avenue. They can then turn right onto Northwest Seventh Street, followed by a right onto Northwest 17th Avenue, where they can continue north to reconnect with the Dolphin Expressway westbound lanes.

Drawbridge schedules temporarily changing

The construction will also result in a temporary change to the operating schedules for the Southwest First Street and West Flagler Street bridges over the Miami River.

On Saturday from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., both bridges will open on the hour and half-hour.

Outside of that four-hour period, the bridges will follow their normal operating schedules.

Public vessels of the United States, tugs and tugs with tow, as well as vessels in distress, will be allowed to pass at any time.

The temporary bridge schedule change is being made in support of the Dolphin Expressway closure. The U.S. Coast Guard will also announce the change through its notices to mariners.

According to the Florida Department of Transportation, the work is part of the I-395/SR 836/I-95 Design-Build Project, which is intended to add capacity, improve traffic flow and safety, and improve access along the three highways.

Trantalis discussed the measure Wednesday during Fort Lauderdale’s 2026 State of the City address at The Parker, where he also highlighted the city’s investments in public safety, infrastructure and quality of life.

According to the city, the proposed amendment would increase property tax exemptions and impose controls on local government spending.

The city said homesteaded homeowners would pay less in property taxes under the measure, while local governments would receive less revenue to pay for services.

Trantalis emphasized that the city is not advocating for or against the amendment, but said residents should understand what it could mean before casting their ballots.

“As mayor, it is not my role to tell you how to vote,” Trantalis said. “But I believe I have a duty to help educate the public and ensure you understand what is being proposed.”

The mayor encouraged residents to learn more about the amendment and its potential effects and to participate in the November election.

Trantalis highlights city investments

During his State of the City address, Trantalis also pointed to projects and services supported through Fort Lauderdale’s budget.

Over the past year, the city opened a new police headquarters, moved forward with major drainage projects, resurfaced more than 10 miles of roads and repaired or replaced more than 22 miles of sidewalks, according to the city.

Fort Lauderdale has also continued improvements to its parks, while the new Prospect Lake Clean Water Center is scheduled to officially open Oct. 15.

The city said it has expanded public safety initiatives and invested in affordable housing while continuing work related to homelessness, transportation and the protection of Fort Lauderdale’s waterways.

Fort Lauderdale also adopted a budget without raising its property tax rate for the 20th consecutive year, according to the city. The city said it continues to maintain a AAA bond rating and has established a new Emergency Reserve Fund and updated its Financial Integrity Principles.

“Our results are real and measurable,” Trantalis said. “We strengthened the foundations of our city with generational investments that will serve our residents for decades to come.”

Trantalis closed his address by emphasizing the long-term impact of decisions being made today.

“We have built a stronger foundation,” he said. “A foundation that is ready for whatever challenges lie ahead. A foundation that will support new opportunities, new ideas and new generations.”

Zidane faces Italy again on Friday, this time in a suit as France's coach. The Nations League game at Stade de France will be his first at home since taking charge of Les Bleus.

Although 20 years have passed, the headbutt incident remains one of soccer's most iconic and talked-about moments.

Why was Zidane sent off?

After the two briefly exchanged words, Zidane jogged forward to join the play. He suddenly stopped, turned around and stooped his head to push it into Materazzi.

As the Italian players reacted angrily, Zidane adjusted his captain's armband before speaking to Argentine referee Horacio Elizondo, who brandished a red card high in the air in front of a stunned crowd in Berlin.

In July, Elizondo told Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport that neither he nor his two assistants had seen the incident. Elizondo was only alerted to it by the fourth official, long before video reviews existed in soccer.

As the images were replayed on French television, the late soccer commentator Thierry Gilardi expressed the disbelief of millions watching the drama unfold back home.

“Oh Zinedine, not that. Not that, Zinedine. Oh no, not that," Gilardi pleaded. "Not today, not after everything you’ve achieved.”

Head bowed, Zinedine walked solemnly past the Jules Rimet World Cup trophy he had raised eight years earlier when France won the World Cup. With Zidane gone, Italy won the ensuing penalty shootout after a 1-1 draw.

Zidane vs. Materazzi

They were the main protagonists of that tense final.

Materazzi's early foul on winger Florent Malouda led to Zidane scoring with an audacious Panenka-style penalty.

As he stepped up, Zidane avoided eye contact with Gianluigi Buffon, the world’s best goalkeeper at the time, thus negating Buffon's options to read what he would do. He sent Buffon the wrong way with a brilliantly-disguised scuffed shot, with the ball hitting the underside of the crossbar and bouncing over the line.

Zidane almost scored again but his injury-time header was superbly tipped over by Buffon. Soon after, Zidane was in the dressing room as the last game of his career ended in shame.

Speculation abounded as to what made ZZ blow his top.

“He triggered something by mentioning my sister Lila," Zidane told sports daily L’Equipe in 2022. “Sometimes it’s in moments like those that you might do something wrong.”

Materazzi said teammate Gennaro Gattuso had scolded him for not marking Zidane on an earlier header.

“Shortly thereafter in a similar situation I held (Zidane) by the shirt a little in order so he couldn’t jump," Materazzi explained. "I said sorry twice. Then he said, ‘If you want my shirt I’ll give it to you later,’ and I said something to him. But nothing worse then what we used to say as kids playing on the beach in Bari.”

Popularity and admiration

Zidane’s two goals in the 1998 World Cup final win against Brazil made him an overnight superstar, with his face famously beamed on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. A Ballon d’Or award followed and, two years later, his inspired performances led Les Bleus to glory at the European Championship.

Despite the red card, his popularity remains undiminished and hundreds of fans cheered him outside the French soccer federation's headquarters when he was appointed France coach after the World Cup, replacing Didier Deschamps.

France players Esteban Lepaul and Manu Koné have spoken with admiration about Zidane's training sessions.

Zidane has won his first two games in charge away from home, 1-0 against Turkey and Belgium. Italy's rebuilding under returning coach Roberto Mancini began with a 2-0 home loss to Belgium, but there is optimism following a 4-1 win at Turkey.

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AP Sports Writer Andrew Dampf in Rome contributed ___

See AP’s full soccer coverage here

The expansion highlights a broader challenge for the jewelry industry: reducing the environmental footprint of precious metals while meeting growing demand for jewelry. Using recycled gold and silver can reduce the need for newly mined metals, but experts say making that shift requires reliable supply chains and greater transparency.

The new facility in Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam will produce up to 60 million pieces of jewelry a year, increasing the company’s manufacturing capacity by 50% while cutting its carbon footprint by 17%, CEO Berta de Pablos-Barbier told The Associated Press.

“We are leading the way and we really hope that the rest follow,” she said.

Pandora expands in Vietnam as manufacturers seek clean power

After 37 years in Thailand, Pandora wanted to expand its manufacturing base to increase flexibility and strengthen supply-chain resilience, Pablos-Barbier said.

She said that it chose Vietnam for its skilled artisans who can meet Pandora's standards for craftsmanship, its business environment and its strong infrastructure.

Access to renewable energy infrastructure to power factories is increasingly an "important factor" for Pandora and other Danish companies, Lina Gandløse Hansen, Denmark's ambassador to Vietnam, said.

Pandora's Vietnam facility, with 7,000 workers, will be powered entirely by renewable electricity from the sun and wind, with solar panels installed on its rooftops and plans to work with local solar farms, the company said.

It is also across the road from the $1 billion factory that toymaker Lego opened in 2025, where it says it makes toys without adding planet-warming gases to the atmosphere.

Vietnam has rapidly expanded renewable energy and had Southeast Asia’s largest installed solar and wind capacity at the end of 2024. But the country still relies heavily on coal to power its fast-growing economy, making it important for manufacturers to shift toward cleaner electricity as Vietnam works toward net-zero emissions by 2050.

Manufacturing makes up a fifth of Vietnam’s GDP and consumes half the energy it uses. There are plans to phase out its coal power plants by 2040.

Using recycled gold and silver to make jewelry

Pandora's commitment to using recycled gold and silver was a “big deal," said Saleem H. Ali, who leads the program on critical minerals and inclusive energy transitions at the United Nations University.

He said gold is especially easy to recycle and unlike metals such as copper, it does not break down or rust. Silver can also be recycled, although it can tarnish and needs to be cleaned.

“That is why it is so valuable. We still have gold from the ancient Egyptians, in pretty good shape,” he said.

The Danish company switched to using 100% recycled silver and gold for new jewelry in August 2024.

Its factories receive small grains of refined metal from recyclers in Europe and Asia, sourced from items ranging from medical equipment to old cutlery, said Pandora’s chief sustainability officer Mads Twomey-Madsen.

It also means finding suppliers, smelters or refiners that use only recycled material. There's also a risk that some could add newly mined material into the mix, Ali said. “That involves a lot of auditing.”

Pandora began changing its wider supply chain five years ago by adopting standards set by the Responsible Jewellery Council, an industry group that promotes responsible practices including on human rights, workers’ rights and environmental impacts, Twomey-Madsen said. The company uses independent auditors, he said.

He said the ultimate goal is for the entire supply chain, including the energy-intensive process of heating and separating metals from other materials to remove impurities, to be powered by clean energy.

Other challenges include urban mining and tracing gold

Recovering valuable metals from discarded products and other waste is a challenge, Twomey-Madsen said.

The world is producing more e-waste than ever — 62 million metric tons in 2022, projected to grow to 82 million metric tons by 2030, according to a report by the United Nations' International Telecommunications Union and research arm UNITAR. Much of this is processed informally, where workers can be exposed to toxic substances while recovering valuable metals such as gold and silver.

More than 1,000 harmful substances have been found in e-waste or produced when it is improperly recycled, including lead, mercury, cadmium and other toxic chemicals, according to the World Health Organization.

Ali, the critical minerals expert, said that artisanal gold mining — when individuals or small groups extract gold using simple tools — was now the largest cause of mercury pollution worldwide. Miners in poor countries may use the toxic metal to separate gold from other materials, harming people and the environment.

He said there have been efforts to improve gold sourcing, but tracing gold remains difficult. South Asia, in particular, has high demand for gold and jewelry sellers often don’t ask where their gold comes from.

“Once it gets melted, it’s very hard to track it,” he said.

Twomey-Madsen said that the company hopes its commitment to buying recycled metals will show suppliers that there is a growing market for the materials. He added that Pandora initially paid a premium for recycled gold and silver, absorbing the higher cost and investing with suppliers to build a more reliable supply chain for the materials.

Making jewelry is far less emissions-intensive than sectors such as aviation or cement. But he said a switch by the entire industry switching to recycled gold and silver could prevent about 58 million metric tons (63.9 million U.S. tons) of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere each year.

“That is comparable to the entire emissions of New York City,” he said.

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Ghosal reported from Hanoi, Vietnam

___

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

A three-judge tribunal found that Campbell, 56, had been “deceived” by Bianka Hellmich, a fellow trustee in the anti-poverty charity Fashion for Relief, which hosted fundraising events in Cannes and London.

Two years ago, the Charity Commission, which registers and regulates charities in England and Wales, found “multiple instances of misconduct and/or mismanagement" at the charity. This included using charity funds to pay for her stay at a five-star hotel in Cannes, as well as spa treatments, room service and cigarettes. As a result, it imposed the ban on Campbell.

In its ruling, the tribunal confirmed there had been “serious misconduct and mismanagement,” but concluded that the “failures in the management of the charity’s finances and the misuse of its funds” resulted from Hellmich’s conduct. These, it added, were “concealed” from the supermodel.

The judges found that Hellmich “used forged documents” and also deceived professional advisers and the Charity Commission.

The judges also said that while Campbell shared responsibility for the charity failing to file its accounts on time, this did not mean she was unfit to be a charity trustee.

During the four-day hearing in June, Campbell said her “only mistake” was trusting Hellmich, who she alleged forged her signature and lied about her credentials as a charity lawyer.

“I don’t look at it as a failure, I look at it as me trusting someone that I knew, someone that was a lawyer,” Campbell said, telling the central London tribunal that she and the Charity Commission had been deceived.

The commission had opposed Campbell’s challenge and said the five-year ban should be upheld.

A probe into Fashion for Relief was opened by the commission in 2021, with the charity dissolved and removed from the register of charities in 2024.

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This story has been amended to correct the Charity Commission's ruling from last year to 2024.

An intelligence service official, who was not authorized to speak to the media, confirmed that there had been three blasts in three different locations but declined to provide further details.

A diplomatic source who requested anonymity for his safety described hearing a blast at 7 p.m. near the defense headquarters, followed by a siren.

Residents near the defense headquarters also said they heard a blast near a factory in the area past midnight.

It remains unclear whether the blasts were related to an attack or were part of training exercises at the defense headquarters.

The explosions came hours after the National Intelligence and Security Service banned the flying of drones in Addis Ababa and surrounding areas.

Ethiopia's federal forces are fighting regional forces in the northern Tigray region, where rebels took control of several towns and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front recently took over the region's main airport, forcing a suspension of flights.

The United Nations has called for de-escalation of the fighting and dialogue between the government and seven opposition groups that recently formed an alliance to challenge Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

Displaced people living in camps since the 2020 war in Tigray said on Thursday they could hear gunfire from miles away near the Hitsats camp in northwestern Tigray.

The camp is home to about 16,000 people who have been living there for six years and are now afraid they may be displaced again.

“We hear fighting supported by heavy artillery, and drones hover in the sky every day,” a resident told The Associated Press over the phone.

Residents in the Tigrayan capital, Mekelle, say communication, banking and other essential services have been disrupted by the fighting.

Abdelaziz Ahmed, 35, a merchant, said the lack of cash caused by disruptions to banking services was affecting his business.

“People cannot buy anything because they lack cash, so we cannot sell. My current stock won’t last more than a month. My only hope is that all these challenges pass and peace is restored in Tigray,” he said.

A taxi driver who declined to be named because of fears for his safety said fuel prices had doubled on the black market.

"The war has made life extremely difficult. We don’t even have money for food or rent,” he said.

A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that only 17% of U.S. adults approve of the Republican president's handling of the cost of living. Just 26% approve of his handling of the economy overall, marking a new low.

A majority, 65%, of U.S. adults now blame Trump’s policies for persistently high costs more than factors outside of his control, signaling growing weariness over his aggressive use of tariffs and continued unhappiness with the war with Iran.

The dismal numbers come just weeks before midterm elections that will determine whether Republicans maintain control of Congress and while Trump is hitting the campaign trail with an aggressive schedule of rallies. But Trump — who has asked voters to pretend that he is on the ballot as he tries to bolster turnout — remains deeply unpopular, with even many Republicans faulting him for failing to deliver on promised relief.

“I was hoping it would be better or different, but it’s not really good," said Robert Gault, 66, a retired factory worker from Bradford, Pennsylvania, who describes himself as a Republican.

“Our president, I thought, was going to help the country, and so far he has not really seemed to have done that with the economy or in general. He’s not really done what I was hoping he would," said Gault. "He said, 'Make America Great Again.' And I have not seen him do that.”

Costs drag on Trump as the economic pain keeps coming

Over the last few months, Americans have grown more worried about being able to afford basics like groceries and gas. About half of U.S. adults now say they are “extremely” or “very” concerned about being able to fill their tanks, up from 39% in July. About half are also highly concerned about being able to afford food.

Prices are "extremely exorbitant. Just the cost of everything is going up as a result of fuel,” said Pedro Sanchez, 52, of Perris, California, who voted for Trump and works in law enforcement. “I used to have a lot more disposable income. I don’t have that any more. It’s gotten eaten up because of all these increases in the cost of everything.”

Trump’s current approval on the economy is a 14 percentage point drop from March 2025, just after he took office for the second time. His struggles on the issue mark a significant departure from his first term, when the economy was often a point of strength.

Trump spent much of the 2024 campaign hammering President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Democrats, on inflation and promising to lower prices. Now, there's widespread disappointment with his performance. About 7 in 10 Americans say Trump’s handling of the cost of living has been “worse than expected." That includes roughly half of Republicans, who are also broadly concerned about being able to afford groceries and gas.

“Groceries are just like kind of out of control. It seems like everything is going up," said Bethany Lnenicka, 41, who operates a small farm in Fairfax, Iowa. “It's just one thing and the next week it's another thing. It's just insane. And of course your income doesn’t go up.”

A political independent who typically votes Republican and has voted for Trump three times, Lnenicka said she had hoped his second term would be more like his first.

“I just do not feel like it has gotten a lot better," she said.

About 6 in 10 Republicans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the cost of living, according to the new poll, up from about half in April.

“It definitely doesn’t feel like we have trended in the right direction," agreed Kristen Slaven, 41, a mental health therapist who lives in Gluckstadt, Mississippi, and typically votes Republican. She said Trump is focused on the wrong things.

“Obviously wars don’t help. When they’re necessary, I understand. But our focus on renaming bodies of water and pieces of land, that’s just stupid to me when people can't feed their family," she said.

“I had hoped that it would be better,” Slaven added.

Some Republicans are still willing to cut Trump some slack

Despite their frustration, most Republicans, 67%, say factors outside of Trump's control are more to blame for high prices.

“I think inflation is a very difficult thing to tackle," said Fred Naumann, 51, a Republican and longtime Trump supporter who lives in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Though he would like to see interest rates come down, Naumann, who works in the automotive industry, supports tariffs and the war with Iran, believing it was necessary.

Overall, however, most Americans, 69%, continue to say the war has not been worth fighting, up slightly from 64% in July. Only 28% approve of how Trump is handling Iran.

Americans are also unhappy with Trump's trade wars. Only about 3 in 10 U.S. adults approve of how he is handling trade negotiations with other countries, down from about 4 in 10 in March. And 64% say he has “gone too far” on imposing new tariffs on other countries, up from 58% in January.

Overall, the picture is not better. Only about 3 in 10 Americans approve of how Trump is handling his job as president. And about 6 in 10 say the country as a whole is “much” or “somewhat” worse off than when he began his second term.

The issue on which Trump maintains relative strength is border security, with about half of Americans saying they approve of his performance.

Trump faces more blame than Biden did

Trump's low grade on the economy rivals Biden’s 28% approval rating in June 2022, when there was record-high inflation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But Americans were less likely to blame Biden in the lead-up to that year's midterm elections, a sharp contrast with the solid majority who hold Trump responsible now. In October 2022, 44% of Americans said Biden’s policies were responsible for high prices, while 55% blamed factors outside of his control.

Sanchez, a Republican who voted for Trump, blames him, at least in part.

“I think he has a lot to do with it. This war in Iran, the tariffs that he’s placing on other countries, obviously are affecting us. Those two things are things he’s been directly involved in that directly affect the economy,” he said. “I think with Biden, a lot of the stuff was outside of his control. It was all the COVID and how that affected everything else. I don’t think that there was much that he could have done."

He had high hopes for Trump's return. Now, things seem worse than under Biden.

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Colvin reported from New York.

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The AP-NORC poll of 2,140 adults was conducted Sept. 24-28 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.

It appears his stance has softened.

Klopp, now Germany coach, was asked to comment on the explosive verdict published Tuesday that found City guilty of all the serious financial charges brought by the Premier League relating to 2009-18, when City was building a squad that would later go on to dominate English soccer — often at Liverpool's expense.

“I know I once said something that I’d come if there was ever a parade," Klopp told a news conference late Wednesday, "but it doesn’t feel like that now.

"I don’t feel like I need to have my bus parade. I can wait and stay totally relaxed.”

Klopp won the Premier League once with Liverpool — in the 2019-20 season — and finished second to Pep Guardiola's City teams by one point in the 2018-19 and 2021-22 seasons after memorable title races that raised the bar in terms of points earned and the standard of football played.

Klopp said his respect for Guardiola, who was at City from 2016 until leaving this summer, hadn't changed.

“My respect for Pep Guardiola and the football that City played in the time when we played against each other, what they played on the field, the opponents they were at the top level, is much too high for me to say anything now," Klopp said. "If there are some punishments handed down, then it’s obviously not anything to do with me so I’ll just wait. I’m completely OK about what happened and what we achieved.”

Klopp had adopted a more jokey tone in January 2025 when he was asked how he would respond to City being stripped of its titles in the event of being found to have broken Premier League rules.

Speaking at a time when he was head of global soccer at Red Bull, Klopp said: "If it would happen, I told all the people who wanted to, ‘Just book a flight to Mallorca. I will buy the beer!’ We’d have our own parade in my garden.”

Klopp's latest comments came ahead of Germany's match against Serbia in Munich on Thursday, when he’ll aim to avoid the unwanted record of being first coach to go winless in their first three games with Germany's men's national team.

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See AP’s full soccer coverage here

Children and staff at the school were in shelters when the drone hit, Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said, and its warhead didn’t explode. No casualties were reported, but the building’s brick facade showed a large hole, revealing a staircase, and burn marks alongside smashed windows.

Kyiv has felt like a city under siege in recent weeks, with repeated air raid alerts, punctuated by loud explosions from drone and missile strikes. The onslaught aims to terrorize civilians, officials and analysts say, and break their will to resist 4½ years after Russia’s full-scale invasion.

The strain is showing. Maryna Lystopad, 35, said her hair has started falling out due to the stress from escalating attacks and never knowing where the next attack will hit.

"It’s really horrible. I can’t take it anymore. I think, I think that soon we’re all going to leave. I’m really not doing well,” she told The Associated Press. “I’m constantly anxious. I can’t relax. I keep thinking that if something happens, if something hits, one of my relatives could be killed.”

Lystopad said she recently had to travel to another part of Kyiv and had been “genuinely stressed" the whole way there.

“I kept checking, like, whether anything was flying in, where it was going, where am I supposed to go? Where am I supposed to run?” she said.

Ukraine's air defenses are stretched

The front line in eastern and southern Ukraine hasn’t seen major shifts since last year, but the country is struggling to fend off Russia’s intensified aerial attacks on cities that include ballistic missiles and high-flying jet-powered drones.

In response, Ukraine has fired its long-range drones at manufacturing plants deep inside Russia and has targeted Russia’s drone launch sites. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that Kyiv’s forces struck a site in Russia’s southwestern Oryol region that is used to store and launch attack drones.

To turn the tide, Ukraine needs U.S.-made Patriot missiles that can effectively defend against ballistic missiles, but they are in short supply since the Iran war began. A plan to produce them inside Ukraine could take years to bear fruit.

Kyiv is racing to produce interceptors that can bring down fast-moving jet-propelled drones as the swift cycle of military innovation during the war continues.

Ukraine also wants tougher sanctions imposed on Russia to prevent it from getting key high-tech components for its arsenal.

Britain on Thursday imposed sanctions on 31 Russian individuals, entities and ships it says are linked to disinformation, attempts to avoid energy sanctions and the mistreatment of Ukrainian civilians in areas seized in the war by Russia.

Moscow, meanwhile, is pressing its advantage before Ukraine comes up with an answer to the latest challenges.

Two Russian drones hit an important bridge across the Dnipro River in Kyiv on Thursday, Klitschko said, with traffic suspended until a safety inspection could be done.

Russia steps up a campaign against Ukraine's power grid

Ukrainian officials didn’t report any energy infrastructure being hit Thursday, a day after what officials said was the biggest Russian attack on the power grid since spring.

Wednesday's barrage marked “the beginning of Russia’s strike campaign aimed at degrading Ukraine’s energy security ahead of winter … and forcing Ukraine to capitulate,” said the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank.

Russia is expected to step up attacks on the electricity supply as the weather gets colder. It was 19 degrees Celsius (66 F) in Kyiv on Thursday, and mild temperatures were set to continue.

In a surprise development, Russia for the first time on Wednesday used a jet-powered drone fitted with a warhead designed to sever high-voltage pylons, said Serhii Beskrestnov, an adviser to Zelenskyy on defense technology.

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AP reporter Volodymr Yurchuk in Kyiv contributed.

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

“London Falling” by Patrick Radden Keefe is on the shortlist for the 50,000-pound ($67,000) Baillie Gifford Prize. The New Yorker magazine writer won the prize in 2021 for “Empire of Pain,” his book about the Sackler pharmaceutical family and its role in unleashing America’s opioid crisis.

The biography-heavy list of finalists includes Nicholas Boggs’ “Baldwin: A Love Story,” about the American writer James Baldwin; Matthew Sweet’s biography of romance novelist Barbara Cartland, “The Great Dictator”; Edmund Richardson’s study of Alexander the Great, “Alexander: God, King, Man”; and Andrea Wulf’s “The Traveler,” about the 18th-century naturalist and explorer George Forster.

Anand Gopal’s Syrian saga “Days of Love and Rage: A Story of Revolution” rounds out the list.

Journalist Kirsty Lang, who is chairing the judging panel, said, “there is something for everyone: a romantic novelist, a civil rights activist, an 18th-century explorer, an ancient king, the Syrian revolution told from the ground up, and a dark portrait of contemporary London.”

“It is an eclectic list united by stories of people navigating a world full of conflict as well as hope,” she said.

The winner will be announced Nov. 4 at a ceremony in London.

Founded in 1999, the prize recognizes English-language books in current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography, autobiography and the arts. It has been credited with bringing an eclectic slate of fact-based books to a wider audience.

Riding powerful pitching led by Cam Schlitter and Max Fried, Yankees batters broke though just enough against Red Sox starters and beat up Boston’s bullpen in sweeping their rival in the Wild Card Series.

“We’re going to continue to rely on amazing starting pitching like we have all year,” Ben Rice said after Wednesday night’s 9-2 win. ”Especially in the postseason, that’s what you need.”

Schlittler and Fried combined to go 2-0 with a 0.73 ERA against the Red Sox with 16 strikeouts and two walks in 12 1/3 innings.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone must decide whether to open against the Rays with Gerrit Cole, who was set to start a Game 3 against Boston, or Carlos Rodón.

“Obviously, Gerrit’s lined up for that. Carlos is very much in play for that,” Boone said. “We have a ton of confidence in both guys. I think they’re both throwing the ball really well.”

Boone said it was possible Schlittler, Fried, Cole and Rodón all will start against the Rays. New York's starters led the major leagues with a 3.30 ERA.

“That’s been the biggest strength for us throughout the year,” Boone said. “It sustained us. It got us through some difficult times. And I feel like they’re all in a good place right now.”

New York’s best-of-five series against the Rays has an extra off day between Games 1 and 2, allowing Schlittler to start the second game and come back on normal rest for a Game 5.

Whether Judge will return to the lineup remains unclear.

Sidelined since Sept. 16 by a strained right calf, Judge has resumed hitting.

“Saturday’s a long ways away, but I’m doing everything I can, all morning, night, during the game, everything to prepare myself to be ready to go,” Judge said. “So I want to be in there. So we’ll see what happens.”

Tampa Bay won the season series 7-6 en route to an AL-best 98-64 record, their runners often spinning around the bases like a roulette ball going around the wheel. The Rays were sixth in the major leagues with a .326 on-base percentage and tied for second with 164 stolen bases.

Rays batters struck out the fewest times in the major leagues at 1,145, an average of about two per game fewer than the Yankees.

Because they won the AL East and had a bye, the Rays will enter the series with five days’ rest — which some in baseball is convinced causes rust.

“The alternative is playing three must-win games or two out of three. I’ll take where we’re at,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said.

Rays left-handed pitchers held lefty batters to a .205 average during the regular season. Yankees lefty batters hit .500 (11 for 22) against Boston southpaws.

“They faced so many guys for months there where we were very left-handed, where in the fifth inning every day it was one lefty and then another one because that’s how they attack us,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “So I’d like to think some of that familiarity and reps and all that prepared us well.”

New York was second in the majors with 223 home runs, three behind Houston. What was often a home-run-or-bust batting order diversified in the Wild Card Series.

Homegrown players — Rice, Spencer Jones, George Lombard Jr., Anthony Volpe and Austin Wells — combined for 11 RBIs.

“The young guys have done a tremendous job,” outfielder Cody Bellinger said. “It’s been fun to watch. It’s fun to watch them grow and they’ve been a huge part of our success.”

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Outside groups aligned with the two major parties have pledged heavy spending in a battle for control of closely divided legislatures in at least a half-dozen states. But that's just the tip of the spear in their political jousting.

In numerous other states, the parties are striving to make or break a legislative supermajority — an important threshold that allows them to enact laws with little regard to dissent. And in several states, competitive gubernatorial races could determine whether one party achieves a political trifecta, grasping hold of both legislative chambers and the top executive spot.

Party control of state governments can shape policies on contentious issues including abortion, school choice, data centers and the use of law-enforcement surveillance cameras. In a few states, the electoral outcomes this cycle could also have congressional redistricting implications for 2028.

The state races also carry significant implications for Trump's agenda, because the elected officials can either aid or resist his immigration enforcement actions, social safety net limitations and efforts to alter voting procedures.

All told, voters in 46 states will choose more than 6,100 lawmakers in November, accounting for about 83% of all legislative seats nationwide, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Thirty-six states will hold gubernatorial elections.

Trump's approval ratings could swing state legislatures

Historically, the party of the president typically loses U.S. House seats in midterm elections. That also is true of state legislative seats.

In midterm elections over the past 50 years, the president's party has lost an average of 7.9% of its house and assembly seats up for reelection in states, according to research by Steven Rogers, a political science professor at Saint Louis University. In Trump's first midterm, in 2018, Republicans lost 8.7%, Rogers said.

A similar showing this year could spell the end of Republican control of legislative chambers in Arizona, Michigan, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Minnesota currently has the nation's tightest margins, with an even split between Democrats and Republicans in the House and a one-seat Democratic edge in the Senate.

Trump's poor public approval ratings could play a role in those states. For voters choosing state house and assembly candidates, presidential approval typically has three times the impact of state legislative approval, Rogers said.

Edith Jorge-Tuñón, president of the Republican State Leadership Committee, conceded that her party is in a defensive position.

“I think we knew going into this cycle, Democrats have an advantage,” said Jorge-Tuñón, whose group works to elect Republicans to legislative seats and statewide offices. But she argued that voter frustration with Democratic leadership in states like Minnesota or Oregon could provide a buffer against that advantage.

Racine could be key to Wisconsin political control

Wisconsin provides an example of how political power could swing. Democrats haven't fully controlled Wisconsin's government since 2010. But new legislative districts, ordered by the liberal-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court, give Democrats a shot at flipping both Republican-led chambers.

Democrats’ hopes run through downtown Racine. Located along the shores of Lake Michigan north of Chicago and south of Milwaukee, Racine is a Democratic stronghold known both for its rich manufacturing past and as the kringle capital of Wisconsin. Danish immigrants brought the buttery, oval-shaped pastry to the area in the 1800s, and bakeries in downtown Racine continue to make the sweet treats and ship them around the country.

Under Republican-drawn maps enacted in 2011, most of Racine was removed from the 21st Senate District to make the seat safe for Republicans. But the new map added back the city’s north side and more Democratic-favorable areas in Milwaukee County and removed conservative rural areas.

The Republican incumbent decided to retire rather than seek reelection under the more competitive lines, further bolstering Democratic hopes.

Democrats are optimistic they will pick up the two seats needed to flip control of the Senate in November. They need to flip five seats to gain control of the Assembly. An open governor's office, also on the ballot, gives them a shot at full control.

“In a year like this with the president and his war jacking up the prices of gas, Democrats are in a really strong position,” said Will Karcz, spokesperson for Wisconsin Senate Democrats.

A single seat could sway power in some states

In North Carolina, Republicans need to gain just one state House seat — without losing any Senate seats — to reestablish a three-fifths supermajority. That threshold is important because it gives Republicans the ability to override vetoes by Democratic Gov. Josh Stein without needing any Democratic votes.

Iowa Republicans face a similar math equation to regain a two-thirds legislative supermajority, which could matter even more if Democrats win the race to replace Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, who chose not to seek reelection.

A loss of just one state Senate seat could cost Republicans a supermajority in Florida. Meanwhile, a pickup of one seat could result in a new Democratic supermajority in New York.

Among other battlegrounds, a swing of just a few seats could break a Republican supermajority in Missouri and gain Democratic supermajorities in Colorado and Nevada.

This year's state elections could affect 2028's congressional elections

If Democrats are able to win full control in Minnesota, Pennsylvania or Wisconsin, they could use their new trifectas to redraw U.S. House districts ahead of the 2028 elections. They would be copying tactics employed by Republicans ahead of this year's elections in states such as Texas and Florida and by Democrats in California.

Republicans currently hold 20 of the 33 total congressional seats in those three northern states. So Democrats could make notable gains if they redraw districts to their advantage.

In Arizona and Michigan, where Republicans also hold an edge in congressional seats, redistricting would be more difficult because the task is assigned to an independent commission. California was in a similar situation. But Democratic lawmakers there placed an amendment on the statewide ballot last year allowing them to sidestep a commission to enact a new congressional map.

Both major parties are openly fundraising off the partisan redistricting stakes.

“Every election in this moment … potentially is about redistricting,” said Heather Williams, president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee.

Known as the driest nonpolar desert on Earth, a massive portion of the Atacama Desert has been covered in flowers after the El Niño weather pattern brought heavy rains to the region earlier this year. The unusually large amount of water allowed millions of seeds and bulbs to sprout and bloom, many of them after remaining dormant for decades.

“It is a unique phenomenon; there are more than 200 plant species,” Jorge Carabantes, head of the Protected Areas Department at the National Forest Corporation (CONAF), told The Associated Press. “This is a flowering event that is obviously extraordinary and unusual, very different from other blooms that occur elsewhere on the globe.”

The Atacama lies between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes Mountains, stretching some 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) all the way down the northern coast of Chile.

Although flowering is common during the transition from winter to spring, this year the rocky, brownish dunes that make up the desert’s traditional landscape have turned into a vibrant, colorful carpet of wildflowers during a historic Desierto Florido, or “flowering desert.”

“I always thought it was just going to be brown. That’s my image of a desert, just brown,” said Felix Banda, 51, who was born in Chile but has lived his whole life in Australia. “I knew that it had rained a lot, so I was expecting to see some beautiful greenery, but this is an incredible landscape,” he added about his first visit to the Atacama.

Record rainfall turns into a visual spectacle

Between July and August, Chile recorded record rainfall in several regions, with some levels never seen since measurements began in the 1950s. The heavy precipitation was driven by a super El Niño, a climate phenomenon that causes sharp rises in global temperatures and is becoming increasingly strong.

“Since rainfall records began, these are the most significant figures in terms of volume: 160, 180, 190 millimeters (6 to 7 inches) in some locations,” explained biologist César Pizarro, head of the Biodiversity Conservation Section at CONAF Atacama. “What has happened now has an origin, and it is called ‘super El Niño.’”

The storms have caused flooding, havoc and devastation in several parts of Chile. In the north, they have also enabled the historic desert bloom, with an estimated coverage of ​​some 17,000 square kilometers (6,560 square miles) this year. This area is similar in size to the Santiago Metropolitan Region, the country’s largest and most populous area.

According to CONAF projections, this is expected to be the most intense and extensive Desierto Florido since 1997.

That's because, Pizarro said, the heavy rainfall activated the desert’s biological material, known as germplasm. This includes seeds, bulbs, and tubers but also the eggs of various invertebrates and reptiles.

The result is a true visual spectacle featuring more than 200 species of plants and flowers in a variety of colors, shapes and forms. Red and yellow ñañucas, purple rock purslane, white suspiros, orange terciopelos and the native garra de león, one of the desert’s most iconic species, have transformed the hills, plains and ravines of the Atacama.

“There are hills and mountain ranges where no greenery or flowers had been seen for more than 30 or 40 years,” Pizarro added. “This desert germplasm can remain (dormant) for many years, even decades. The hills this year are the best example of that.”

Tourism picks up

Whether arriving from within Chile or overseas, tourists are venturing into the remote, inhospitable areas of the Atacama to admire the millions of flowers adorning vast areas of the desert, stretching from the coast to the horizon.

According to data provided to the AP by the National Tourism Secretariat, the Atacama region is expected to see nearly 300,000 overnight trips by the time the natural phenomenon ends in November, positioning Desierto Florido as one of the region’s main tourist attractions this season.

Chef Franco Moya, 37, and his girlfriend traveled nearly 1,000 kilometers (about 620 miles) from Santa Cruz, a town in central Chile’s Colchagua Valley, to several parts of the desert to celebrate his birthday.

“It was striking to see how the flowers grow in such a dry place,” he said. “It’s my first time here ... and it was a truly surprising moment.”

Verstappen arrives at F1's first race in Malaysia since 2017 with the prospect looming of a first winless season since his rookie year in 2015 as Red Bull struggles to keep up with Mercedes at the front despite recent improvements.

"We are scoring quite a few podiums now but I want to win. That’s what I’m here for and I’m getting close, but I want to at least win one race this year. So I hope we can do it at some point," Verstappen said Thursday ahead of this week's race, which is branded as the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.

"We’re anyway not fighting for the championship, so for us it’s a big learning curve, but the last few weekends have been a lot better (than) at the start of the season."

Verstappen's desperate charge against George Russell on the final straight in Baku on Saturday ended in his fourth runner-up finish in the last eight races. He's sixth in the standings with barely half of leader Kimi Antonelli's points tally.

Exactly how many races are left in 2026 for Verstappen to chase an elusive win remains unclear given the uncertainty over the final two scheduled races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi. Eight are left on the schedule including those races, but if they can't go ahead, F1 could opt for one replacement event in Italy.

Asked which tracks might suit his chances best, Verstappen said: "You don’t really know because it also depends on what (upgrades) other people are bringing constantly. I don’t really care to be honest. As long as I win one that would be nice."

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See AP’s full auto racing coverage here

Pakistan beat Bangladesh by six wickets in a match reduced to 13 overs each innings because of a wet outfield. India handed a crushing 124-run defeat to Sri Lanka in the second semifinal, with four Sri Lankan batters failing to score.

Political tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors will likely be in focus once again when the cricket rivals contest Saturday's final in Japan.

No handshakes on cards

One of the sport's traditions has been dispensed with in recent matches between India and Pakistan, with players not shaking hands before or after their contests.

Cross-border tensions between India and Pakistan brought the two countries to the brink of war last year, with the acrimony also spilling onto the cricket field.

Indian cricketers have avoided handshakes with Pakistan players, and have refused to accept the trophy and medals from a Pakistani official at more than one tournament.

The Indian men’s team beat Pakistan three times in the Asia Cup, including the final, but Suryakumar Yadav’s team refused to accept the trophy from Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Mohsin Naqvi and didn't shake hands with Pakistan players in any of the three games.

The Indian women’s team didn't shake hands with the Pakistan team in during a match at the continental championship, and also refused to accept the trophy from Naqvi when it won the women’s Asia Cup in the United Arab Emirates.

Sri Lanka routed for 45

Ishan Kishan’s unbeaten 80-run blitz off 46 balls propelled India to 169-7, and 15-year-old batting sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi struck two sixes and six fours in his aggressive 38.

Sri Lanka, fielding a second-string lineup, lost the top three batters – Sineth Jayawardene, Lasith Croospulle and Sohan de Livera -- without scoring as Jasprit Bumrah claimed two wickets in his opening over and Croospulle was run-out.

Only Nuwanidu Fernando (15) managed to reach double figures as Sri Lanka got bundled out for 45 in 9.5 overs.

Bumrah warmed up for the final with figures of 2-7, while spinners Axar Patel, Washington Sundar and Abhishek Sharma shared five wickets in between them.

India, after being put into bat, got away to a blazing start before Sooryavanshi was dismissed soon after the batting powerplay.

Sri Lanka hit back in the middle overs before Kishan rallied, smacking five sixes and four boundaries to give India a strong total.

Samad and Muqim shine for Pakistan

Abdul Samad smashed an unbeaten 30 off just 15 balls and left-arm spinner Sufyan Muqim snared 3-28 in Pakistan’s convincing win over Bangladesh.

Towhid Hridoy showed aggression in Bangladesh’s total of 111-7 with a knock of 42 off 25 balls that featured four sixes before he was dismissed by Muqim in the penultimate over.

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See AP’s full cricket coverage here

October is finally here — and so is the best version of the Padres, as they demonstrated in their two-game destruction of the Chicago Cubs in the NL Wild Card Series.

The Padres are hitting, pitching and executing at a level rarely seen in a city that has never celebrated a World Series title, and this streaking group is eager to keep chasing San Diego's impossible dream.

“We feel great right now, but we're not done,” Manny Machado said Wednesday night after the Padres finished off the Cubs with a 4-1 victory in Game 2. “Winning games like these, it just makes you hungrier to win more.”

The MLB-leading Milwaukee Brewers are up next in the NL division series starting Saturday, but the Padres' clubhouse is full of players who clearly can't wait to test themselves against the best.

“It’s going to be (some) of the highest-level baseball games ever played, so we’re looking forward to it,” Fernando Tatis Jr. said between cigar puffs in the Padres’ booze-soaked clubhouse.

The Padres beat the Cubs by a combined 12-1 in a thorough two-game domination of their 89-win opponent. San Diego's vaunted pitching staff held the majors' highest-scoring offense to eight low-impact hits while the Padres racked up 21 hits of their own, including four homers.

But this is similar to what the Padres have been doing to the majority of their opponents ever since they turned around their season in the second half.

Despite a roster laden with tested veterans and young talent coming off four playoff appearances in the previous six years, the Padres needed four months to find their best form. They scuffled around .500 into the All-Star break and had a losing record on July 25.

And then San Diego got an enormous confidence boost from a three-game sweep of the Brewers at Petco in early August. The Padres eventually won their final seven series and finished with 91 victories, surging past the Cubs and the Phillies to claim the first wild-card berth and homefield advantage in the opening round.

That’s a big deal to the Padres, who won 51 games at Petco Park during the regular season in front of the fans who turn this downtown stadium into a lively party each night during the summer.

“At the beginning, it was tough — it was rough,” said Tatis, who finished with 25 homers despite inexplicably not hitting his first until June 1. “We were looking really ugly. I was looking really ugly. We decided to turn it around, and with this group, nothing is impossible.”

Even the improbable happens with regularity for the Padres these days.

For instance, Gavin Sheets stepped up to the plate on a plantar plate tear in his left foot in Game 2 and blasted a pinch-hit homer on his only swing of the Wild Card Series.

Sheets was determined not to miss the playoffs, and he fought his way back onto the Padres' roster on the last weekend of the regular season even though he probably isn't healthy enough to play defense in October. He got just one chance to contribute against the Cubs, and he set off a celebration.

Sheets said the Padres are glad they didn't have an opening-round bye. They wanted to keep their roll going — and this demolition of the Cubs only boosted San Diego's confidence in its ability to beat the best.

“I think you gain a lot of momentum from series like this,” Sheets said. “Obviously the Brewers are a 1 seed for a reason. They’re a great team. They’ve got great arms. We’ve played them strong all year, and we know what they offer. ... We’re going to start in Milwaukee, and it’s going to be just like here. It’s going to be rocking. But I think there’s some momentum that gets built when you play these two games.”

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Passengers on the FlyDubai plane — which was carrying 174 people, mostly Israelis, from the United Arab Emirates to Tel Aviv — have described how the bloodied Indian captain managed to open the cockpit door to let them in before they grappled with the copilot and stabilized a descent so sharp that the plane’s rudder was torn away.

“We felt helpless, suspended in midair, and I didn’t know who to turn to. But it was all instinct to survive,” Asaf Rajuan, who was among those who intervened, said in a statement shared by Israel’s presidency.

A regional official briefed on the investigation said the suspect, an Omani citizen, was under arrest and confirmed that Saudi authorities were working with countries, including Israel, to try to determine a motive. He said the UAE, the United States and Oman also were involved.

“All possible scenarios, from terrorism to mental disorders, are being looked into. Nothing is ruled out for now,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss an ongoing probe.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, without giving details, claimed the attacker underwent Islamist indoctrination. Asked who helped radicalize him, the prime minister told Fox News channel’s “Fox and Friends" he did not know.

When asked by The Associated Press how the prime minister knew the copilot underwent indoctrination, Netanyahu’s office said it would not comment.

The copilot has not been publicly identified. Video shot inside the plane by Shota Musayev, a dentist who treated the captain, shows the copilot on his knees, with his hands tied behind his back.

Capt. Smit Machchhar, widely praised as one of the heroes of the flight, was recovering, the Indian Embassy in the UAE said Thursday.

Israeli investigators will join the interrogation of the copilot

Israeli intelligence and security officials were in Saudi Arabia to help investigate the copilot, according to another regional official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Israel has requested that the copilot be sent to Israel for the investigation, though it is unclear if that request will be granted, the official said.

Saudi Arabia does not have formal diplomatic ties with Israel, but the countries have long cooperated on security and intelligence matters through alternative channels.

The UAE government said its own investigation team had begun looking into the attack and “whether it was linked to any terrorist purpose,” noting that Emirati authorities have jurisdiction because the plane is registered there and UAE law applies to crimes committed on board.

Asked if there is any indication of Iranian involvement, Netanyahu told Fox News “it’s too early to say.”

Netanyahu earlier said he also spoke with the UAE’s president, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who agreed that Israel would join the interrogation of the suspect.

U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House that he and Netanyahu discussed the incident “at length” by phone and it seemed as though the copilot “was perhaps a terrorist or perhaps a whack job.”

Oman's government, which doesn't have diplomatic relations with Israel, has not commented.

Israel says it received no specific warning of an attack

Netanyahu had warned in recent days of heightened security threats, though he told CNN that Israel had received no specific warning. The country is a week away from the anniversary of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which has triggered the war in Gaza — and weeks away from an election.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry said most of the people on board were from Israel, along with others from India and the UAE. The U.S. State Department said four passengers had American citizenship.

FlyDubai has said its flights to and from Israel would be suspended. Netanyahu told CBS that Israel plans to fly home anyone stranded in Dubai as a result.

Someone in cockpit sent out discreet distress codes

Someone in the cockpit sent out two four-digit codes to discreetly signal distress while the plane flew erratically near the Jordanian border with Saudi Arabia, according to Flightradar24.com. The first code was “7700,” the universal “squawk” signal for an emergency, then “7500,” which means there is unlawful interference, including a possible hijacking.

The codes are used by pilots when speaking over the radio may not be possible or wise.

A passenger aboard the plane told journalists that the plane was landed by two British pilots who also were passengers.

“They were sitting one row in front of me, row six, and I was in row seven, and they were the ones who landed the plane,” passenger Yaniv Hayoun told journalists Wednesday night after arriving in Tel Aviv.

FlyDubai has said only that “others on board” landed the plane.

School where captain trained calls safe landing ‘miraculous’

In the chaos that began about two and a half hours after takeoff, the flight descended from 33,000 feet to 17,000 feet (around 10,000 meters to 5,100 meters) in about a minute, before making an erratic circle close to the Jordanian border and landing in Tabuk, according to Flightradar24. The site identified the aircraft as a Boeing 737 Max 8.

FlyDubai said crew members helped secure the plane but released no details about them.

The head of the New Zealand flight school where the Indian captain trained, Philip Kean, called it “miraculous" that the aircraft, which was never designed for that sort of dive, did not break up completely.

During the frantic search for a place to land, a person who heard the flight’s communications with air traffic control described the plane being turned away by Saudi Arabia and Jordan before eventually landing in Tabuk in Saudi Arabia while passengers screamed in the background. The pilot’s voice was trembling as he called “mayday” and said a hijacking was taking place.

The air traffic controllers gave no reason for the refusals. The person who heard the communications spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

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Magdy reported from Cairo and Anna from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Josef Federman in Jerusalem and Laurie Kellman in London contributed to this report.

Rescuers continued searching Thursday for a fifth person who was aboard the aircraft and went missing after the Wednesday night crash.

The Coast Guard, area firefighters and divers with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department were among emergency personnel who worked through the night, Coast Guard Capt. Stacey Crecy said at a news conference.

“We’re still doing an active search for the person who’s missing and then in addition to that, the divers and the remote operated vehicle are going to get a look at more of the wreckage and hopefully if there’s a sunken fuselage … we’re hoping to get a better picture of that this morning,” Crecy said.

The cause of the crash was not immediately clear. Crecy said the helicopter went down shortly after takeoff and hit the water a short distance from the island.

Authorities were working on identifying the victims, she said.

“We believe that the medical aircraft was transporting a person off the island for additional medical care on the mainland,” Crecy said, adding she did not have more information on the transport or the patient.

First responders were called to the crash shortly before 8 p.m. Wednesday and pulled four people from the water. Two were pronounced dead at the scene and two were brought in stable condition to hospitals on the mainland, the Los Angeles County Fire Department said.

Firefighters on the island were able to get to the scene quickly by boat, Crecy said.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it is investigating and identified the helicopter as a Eurocopter EC-135-P2.

Authorities said the helicopter was submerged in 240 feet (73 meters) of water off Catalina, which is located about 22 miles (35 kilometers) off the mainland of Los Angeles County.

The helicopter was believed to be operated by REACH Air Medical Services of Sacramento, California, KTLA-TV reported. A spokesperson for its parent company, Global Medical Response, told the station that it was aware of the accident and was gathering information.

Global Medical Response did not immediately return a message seeking comment Thursday morning.

Since first debuting in a surprise, no-phones screening at the Telluride Film Festival on Sept. 6, “You Can See Everything” immediately transformed into one of the year's most buzzed-about films.

Shot secretly over three years, the nearly three-hour documentary captures Holmes, founder of the medical testing company Theranos, in the 34 days before reporting to prison. But as fans of Fielder would expect, little in how “You Can See Everything” follows a conventional route.

Moviegoers lined up outside the Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center as early as 3 a.m. in hopes of attending the sold-out 8 p.m. screening.

“You Can See Everything,” which A24 will release Oct. 16, is a hard-to-believe coda to a preposterous saga. Even Fielder isn’t sure what to make of the surreal odyssey he and Oppenheim captured.

“I am still struggling to this day to understand what I went through,” Fielder said in a Q&A following the screening.

After her conviction on four felony counts of fraud and conspiracy, Holmes entered a Texas prison in May 2023. In a headline-grabbing scandal that rocked Silicon Valley, one of the most surprising and surreal twists was revealed only this month.

Holmes chose to let Fielder, the absurdist comedian of “Nathan For You” and “The Rehearsal,” and the documentary filmmaker Oppenheim, intimately film her life with her partner, the California hotel heir Billy Evans, and their two children.

At this dramatic moment in their lives, Fielder lived in a guest house at their Del Mar, California, beachside home. The filmmakers shot from morning to night. Fielder interviews the couple while in bed, or the bathroom.

“I mean, I cannot tell you how weird it was that we were there,” Fielder said. “I wouldn't think I'd be, like, the person that you would want for your final 34 days of freedom. I'm not the most, like, comforting.”

The filmmakers happened to hear that Holmes and Evans had reached out to A24 about the prospect of making a documentary. Fielder didn't initially think it would amount to a feature film, but he was curious just to meet Holmes.

“When I met her, I remember having this weird experience,” Fielder explained. “She seems so genuine at times but then I'm like, (expletive), tracking my thoughts and being like, ‘I know she’s a liar.'”

“Every person who worked on this movie was going through a similar cognitive dissonance,” said Oppenheim, who directed the just-released “Primetime,” starring Robert Pattinson as “To Catch a Predator” host Chris Hansen. “We would unpack the day's events and no one could agree on seemingly mundane moments that would transpire.”

In “You Can See Everything,” Fielder seeks not only to grasp what is true and not true about Holmes, but to grapple with deeper questions of identity, performance, fiction and control.

Holmes founded Theranos with her then-romantic partner Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani. They promised the company would revolutionize healthcare with a technology that could quickly scan for diseases and other health problems with a few drops of blood taken with a finger prick.

The hype helped them raise nearly $1 billion from investors. By 2014, Theranos was valued at $4.5 billion.

But after the company's purported technology advances were exposed in a series of explosive articles in The Wall Street Journal, the company collapsed. In 2018, the U.S. Justice Department charged Holmes and Balwani with a litany of white-collar crimes.

Balwani was separately convicted in 12 felony counts of fraud and conspiracy and sentenced to nearly 13 years in a South California prison.

The filmmakers more than once asked the Alice Tully Hall crowd to preserve the surprise twists and turns the movie takes as it shifts. That includes dramatic recreations with the aid of an A-list star and other elaborations, all in an effort to get closer to the truth.

But even as Fielder and Oppenheimer pleaded for viewers not to discuss the film in too much detail, they were clearly eager to debate and try to make sense of “You Can See Everything.”

“As each scene that happens, it's happening and we're documenting it. There's no plan of what's going to happen next at any point,” Fielder said. “This is a path that opened up to us and we just followed it.”

“Se ha desmontado una organización criminal enquistada en la justicia y en la administración de una institución muy importante en nuestro país como es el Ministerio Público, la cual encabezada por Roger Mariaca se volvió la organización criminal destinada a proteger e incentivar el narcoterrorismo en el país”, dijo en una conferencia de prensa el ministro de Gobierno, Marco Antonio Oviedo.

El operativo policial contó con apoyo de la agencia antidroga de Estados Unidos DEA pero fue ejecutado por policías bolivianos, indicó Oviedo, quien estaba acompañado en la conferencia de prensa por sus colegas de Defensa, Ernesto Justiniano, y de la Presidencia, Fernando Aramayo.

Oviedo también señaló que se detuvo a cuatro personas importantes del Ministerio Público en un gran despliegue en el que se confiscó una gran cantidad de dinero en una ambulancia que salía del domicilio de Mariaca.

Mariaca enfrentará acusaciones por ser parte de una organización criminal, legitimación de ganancias ilícitas y tráfico de drogas, según el ministro.

Horas antes, el fiscal Luis Montaño informó en conferencia de prensa que asumía el cargo de fiscal general interinamente en ausencia de Mariaca. Entre sus primeras decisiones Montaño designó a una fiscal para ejercer el cargo en la región de Santa Cruz, en el oriente de Bolivia.

“Ante esta situación voy a asumir responsablemente este cargo, pues se dará continuidad y se permitirá el acceso a todos los funcionarios a nivel nacional”, dijo.

Tarde en la noche del miércoles el fiscal antinarcóticos Miguel Gonzales afirmó que Mariaca había sido detenido sin ninguna orden y que desconocía el motivo en una transmisión en vivo en la cuenta oficial de la Fiscalía en Facebook que se vio interrumpida tras imágenes que mostraban a policías entrando en la sala donde hablaba Gonzales.

Visas revocadas por EEUU

El Departamento de Estado de Estados Unidos anunció el lunes la revocación de las visas de unos 12 bolivianos entre jueces, policías y exautoridades para “cumplir los compromisos de defender la gobernanza democrática en todo nuestro hemisferio frente a la corrupción y el narcotráfico”.

Mariaca fue designado Fiscal General en 2024 con el apoyo de más de dos tercios de los miembros de la Asamblea Legislativa, que estaba dominada por el partido de izquierda Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) que gobernó por casi 20 años.

El presidente de centroderecha Rodrigo Paz, que gobierna desde noviembre del año pasado, dio un giro en la administración del país y se acercó a Estados Unidos.

Junto con otros presidentes latinoamericanos Paz se ha sumado al denominado Escudo de las Américas, una iniciativa estadounidense que busca luchar contra los cárteles de droga y el crimen organizado.

“Bolivia ha decidido luchar contra el narcoterrorismo dejando atrás 20 años que fue rehén del narcoterrorismo y otros delitos se habrían apoderado de nuestro territorio”, dijo Oviedo.

Xander Bogaerts drove in the first run for the surging Padres, who followed up their 8-0 victory in Tuesday's opener with another dominant mound performance. The Cubs led the majors in runs and the NL in homers this year, but they managed just eight hits — seven singles — over 18 innings against San Diego's inspired staff.

Ethan Salas drove in a run while becoming the youngest player to catch a postseason game in major league history for the Padres, whose 20-3 surge since Sept. 5 has them looking like a threat in the NL. With their fifth playoff series victory in the past seven years, the Padres advanced to face the MLB-best Milwaukee Brewers in an NL division series this weekend.

“It's our entire group coming together, finding ways to win ballgames over and over,” Fernando Tatis Jr. said between puffs on a cigar in the Padres' beer-soaked clubhouse. “This feels great, but we've already been to this part before, and we're all so hungry to go farther.”

One year after the Cubs eliminated the Padres in three tough Wild Card games at Wrigley Field, the Padres reversed the result in two romps before frenzied sellout crowds at Petco Park.

“It’s nice to finish in two,” manager Craig Stammen said. “Saves our bullpen a little bit, and we can decide who’s going to start Game 1. We haven’t decided that yet, but it definitely sets us up better with two days off. Get those guys fresh and ready to go.”

Nico Hoerner had half of the Cubs’ hits in the series, and he drove in Chicago’s only run in the fourth inning. He also got their only extra-base hit of the series with a ninth-inning double off Mason Miller, but the Padres’ vaunted closer calmly finished the save and set off another massive celebration on the field.

“It didn’t go well here,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “We just didn’t play well enough. They’re playing really well. We just couldn’t get anything going offensively, obviously. Look, when you’re in this position, you’re going to be disappointed. You’re going to feel unfulfilled, and that’s just dominating everything you feel right now. Maybe as you reflect, I think I can get to some better places. Right now, that’s all I feel.”

Probable NL MVP Pete Crow-Armstrong and veteran slugger Alex Bregman struggled mightily atop the Cubs’ lineup in San Diego, going a combined 0 for 15 with a walk and eight strikeouts over these two games. Bregman played just over a week after he was hit in the face with a foul ball.

“Those were the two guys we marked as we don’t want those guys to beat us in this series,” Stammen said. “We tried our best to set up our pitching to handle them. In the first game, we were just lucky we got out to a bigger lead. It’s a lot easier to pitch to those guys with a bigger lead.”

After hitting two homers in the first inning of Game 1, the Padres waited until the second inning of Game 2 to take a 2-0 lead. Ty France led off with a double off Kevin Gausman and scored on Bogaerts’ single before Salas hit a line-drive flyout to center, scoring Jackson Merrill.

Salas, the prized 20-year-old prospect recalled Sept. 1, also became the youngest player to appear in a postseason game for the Padres.

Chicago finally scored when Seiya Suzuki singled and eventually came home on Hoerner’s ground ball to center off Nick Pivetta. Stammen immediately yanked his starter in favor of his intimidating bullpen, and Bradgley Rodríguez escaped a bases-loaded jam.

Rodríguez also pitched the fifth to earn the victory in his postseason debut.

“Those guys, they're so good at what they do,” Pivetta said. “It was a pleasure to watch.”

After Bogaerts’ double chased Gausman in the fourth, Sheets crushed a 100.8 mph fastball from Daniel Palencia into the right-field bleachers. Sheets, the fan-favorite outfielder who is playing with a nagging plantar injury in his left foot, delivered his second career postseason homer and his first since 2021 as a White Sox rookie.

“That was one of the cooler home runs I've ever seen,” Merrill said.

The shot was the Padres’ first pinch-hit postseason homer since 2005, and their long-suffering fans’ cheers rattled the park.

Up next

Game 1 of the division series is Saturday in Milwaukee. The Padres took four of six from the Brewers this season, even sweeping a three-game series at Petco Park in August.

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Pittsburgh will receive two draft picks from Dallas, a sixth-rounder in 2027 and a second-rounder in 2028, one of the people told The Associated Press. Both people spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the teams hadn't announced the deal.

Porter has been inactive all three games this season for the Steelers. The fourth-year pro has been dealing with a back issue and had also been in the middle of a stalemate with the Steelers over a new contract.

The 26-year-old Porter, a second-round pick out of Penn State in the 2023 draft, was seeking an extension as he entered the final year of his four-year rookie deal.

The Cowboys are getting Porter after earlier Wednesday putting safety Jalen Thompson (hamstring) on injured reserve with a designation to return. They also signed three defensive backs to their practice squad.

Safety P.J. Locke (torn plantar fascia) was already on injured reserve. He and Thompson were offseason acquisitions by the Cowboys as a part of retooling the secondary.

It's the second major trade between the Cowboys and Steelers in two years.

Before the 2025 season, Pittsburgh sent receiver George Pickens to Dallas for draft picks. He made the Pro Bowl in his Dallas debut, setting career highs with 93 catches for 1,429 yards and nine touchdowns last season.

Pickens is playing this season on a $27.3 million franchise tag and has 16 catches for 150 yards without a score.

The Steelers took Pickens out of Georgia in the second round in 2022. While his talent was on display during three seasons with the Steelers, so were enough instances of petulant or indifferent behavior for then-coach Mike Tomlin to question his maturity.

Dallas and Pittsburgh also made a lower-profile trade during the preseason this year. The Cowboys acquired offensive tackle Broderick Jones and a fourth-round pick in next year’s draft for third- and sixth-round choices.

Not only is Dallas suddenly seeking reinforcements in the secondary, but the defense as a whole is off to another rough start after being one of the NFL's worst in 2025.

The Cowboys are second-to-last in rushing defense and one of four teams without an interception. Dallas had a franchise-worst six picks on defense last season.

In a 34-31 loss to Baltimore in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday, the Cowboys let Lamar Jackson complete a 27-yard pass to Zay Flowers when the Ravens had just 7 seconds on the clock after a tying field goal by Dallas. Jackson got a timeout called with a second remaining, and Tyler Loop kicked a winning 56-yard field goal.

While the Cowboys had hopes of a quick turnaround with 34-year-old Christian Parker as a first-time defensive coordinator, the first three weeks have shown otherwise. In a season-opening loss to the New York Giants, Dallas had just two possessions in the second half because the defense couldn't get a stop.

Porter was among the top 20 in the NFL in pass breakups over his first three seasons with 31. He had two seasons of double-digit passes defended. Last season, DaRon Bland was the leader for Dallas with six as the Cowboys finished last in the league in passing defense.

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See AP’s full NFL coverage here

Capt. Smit Machchhar, who is from India’s financial hub of Mumbai, was seriously injured in Wednesday's attack. Passengers described how the pilot still managed to open the cockpit door, allowing them to enter and restrain the attacker as the Boeing 737 descended sharply, according to witnesses and Israeli authorities.

The attack forced the flight carrying 174 people from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to Tel Aviv, Israel, to make an emergency landing in Tabuk in northwestern Saudi Arabia. FlyDubai said the aircraft was secured by on-duty crew “who diverted and landed the aircraft safely.”

Machchhar was taken to a hospital in stable condition, the Indian Embassy in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, said late Wednesday. Embassy officials said Thursday that his family had been briefed on his recovery.

India's Modi lauds the pilot’s courage

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday called Machchhar a hero.

“In the face of the gravest danger and despite being seriously injured, he showed immense courage and an unwavering resolve to protect the lives of others. His valor helped save hundreds of lives and avert a great tragedy,” Modi wrote on X.

Modi also praised the captain for demonstrating ”patience, presence of mind and courage,” saying his “actions prevented another 9/11-like attack from happening." He said he had spoken with Machchhar's parents and wife and that the pilot was undergoing treatment.

“Smit’s bravery fills every Indian with pride,” Modi said.

The captain trained as a pilot in New Zealand

According to Machchhar's LinkedIn profile, he has worked for FlyDubai for about four years. Before joining the airline, he spent 11 years with SpiceJet, an Indian low-cost carrier, where he served as a senior commander and line training captain. He logged more than 9,750 flying hours with SpiceJet, according to the profile.

SpiceJet, in a post on X, praised Machchhar’s “heroic courage” and “selfless actions.” “You are a hero to us all, Captain,” the airline wrote.

Machchhar, who is married and has two children, trained as a pilot at Mainland Air in the New Zealand city of Dunedin for 18 months, beginning in 2008, the school's head Philip Kean told 1News, a New Zealand television news channel.

Kean said Machchhar "did very well” as a student and later returned to India, where he worked as a recruiter for the school.

“We’re all very proud of him here and wish him a speedy recovery,” Kean said.

The school, which opened in 1991, offers a range of certifications, from private pilots' licenses to a diploma in aviation, and is popular with international students.

A report published last year by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority found that 39 international students, all from India, were enrolled at the school at the time of its review, accounting for half of its total enrollment.

The pilot had previously spoken about handling emergencies

In a podcast interview last year, Machchhar recalled how nervous he was and how he made mistakes during his first commercial flight in India, and the lessons he learned from the experience.

“At that stage, relaxing would have been the best option,” he told interviewer Zalak Mehta of the “Bona-Fide Banter” podcast.

“Stressing is not going to help, at least … in this industry,” he added.

Machchhar also described an onboard emergency when a pregnant woman went into premature labor, forcing the crew to divert the plane. He said he followed procedures carefully and ensured a safe landing on the first attempt.

“It was methodical. It was quick. It was as quick as it should have been," he said.

Israel's Netanyahu praises the pilot as do his neighbors in Mumbai

Wednesday's attack triggered a major security response in Israel, with authorities scrambling fighter jets in case of a possible hijacking.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacker, an Omani national, was arrested in Saudi Arabia and was undergoing interrogation there. His motive for the attack was not immediately clear.

Netanyahu also praised Machchhar’s “extraordinary bravery” in a post on X, saying the wounded captain fought back after being stabbed, opened the cockpit door and helped passengers and crew overpower the attacker, preventing what Netanyahu described as a “catastrophic midair disaster.”

“He saved the lives of 174 people, including Israeli citizens and other nationals,” Netanyahu wrote.

Shota Musayev, a dentist and eyewitness, told The Associated Press how the wounded Machchhar managed to open the cockpit door to let them in before they grappled with the copilot.

Musayev then treated Machchhar.

“Poor pilot, he was just praying the whole time and was in contact with me, and I was afraid we would really lose him,” Musayev said.

In Ghatkopar East, the Mumbai suburb where Machchhar’s family lives, neighbors spoke of how easy-going he is and also lauded his courage.

“He has a lot of bravery in him,” said Ami Sapani, a neighbor who knows the family. “God is with him.”

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Saaliq reported from New Delhi. Associated Press journalists Charlotte Graham-McLay in Wellington, New Zealand and Adam Schreck in Bangkok contributed to this report.

Pakistan’s Ministry of Information said its strikes were against militant hideouts in two locations and that initial reports suggested 22 militants had been killed. It did not immediately comment on the reports of civilian casualties. Its claim of militants killed could not immediately be independently verified.

The United Nations mission in Afghanistan confirmed that at least 10 civilians, most of them children, were killed in the strikes on the southern province of Helmand and the eastern province of Kunar. It said nine people were injured in the airstrikes.

The strikes come amid repeated cross-border clashes between the two countries, while Pakistan has repeatedly carried out airstrikes inside Afghanistan since tensions between the two countries spiraled dramatically earlier this year. The two neighbors have longstanding disputes over militant activity along their border.

“Civilians continue to be affected by cross-border hostilities. UNAMA reiterates its call for de-escalation, dialogue, respect for international law and prevention of further civilian harm,” the U.N. mission said in a statement.

Last week, UNAMA said it had documented over 1,100 civilian deaths and injuries in Afghanistan from cross-border violence so far this year. Pakistan denies striking civilians and says it targets militants who carry out attacks inside Pakistan. Afghanistan denies harboring militants.

The spokesperson for Afghanistan’s Taliban government, Zabihullah Mujahid, said the airstrikes destroyed three civilian homes.

“We condemn this act and consider this an act of aggression and a crime that violates all universally accepted principles,” he said.

Mohammad Hashim, a 30-year-old resident of the village that was bombed in Kunar province, said the strike occurred at around 3 a.m.

“I heard a woman calling out, asking for the stones to be moved off her; she was trapped underneath,” he said. “We pulled her out, she was injured.” He said that digging through the rubble, he also found the bodies of two men and four children.

Another local resident, 32-year-old Mohammad Habib, said one of those killed was a shepherd who was not affiliated with any militant or government groups.

“He was a very poor and humble man. He would let his goats out in the morning without anyone even herding them, and they would go out in the morning and return home in the evening, and (Pakistan) martyred him,” he said.

Pakistan's Ministry of Information said the airstrikes were “well planned and calibrated” against militant hideouts and camps, and had “been carried out in Afghanistan with precision and accuracy.” It added that large quantities of weapons and ammunition were located in the hideouts and were destroyed.

Pakistan accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of allowing militants, particularly the Pakistani Taliban — formally known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP — to operate from Afghan territory and carry out attacks inside Pakistan. The TTP is separate from but allied with the Afghan Taliban, who have ruled Afghanistan since seizing power in 2021. Kabul denies providing the group a safe haven and has rejected Pakistan’s accusations.

“The threat to Pakistan emanates from Afghanistan," Pakistan's ministry said. "Our action precisely targeted the terrorist hubs.”

“Maximum precautions were taken and it was ensured that no collateral damage occurs,” the statement said and added that its campaign “will continue at full pace to wipe out" the threat of militants from the country.

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Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.

The South American animals, of various sizes and colors, roam among the tables at the Tiganjica Ethno-Village resort near Stajicevo, north of Belgrade, happy to interact with the guests.

The Alpaca Cafe here opened only a week ago and is a rare sight in Europe. Tiganjica resort owner Zoran Ostojin said he got the idea in Slovakia.

“My wife and I were in an Alpaca cafe in Slovakia and we were fascinated,” Ostojin told The Associated Press. “We wanted people in our country to get to know alpacas and feel this animal and its energy.”

Calm and friendly, alpacas are known for their mild character and easy disposition. While related to llamas and camels, alpacas are smaller, loved for their soft fleece and gentle humming sounds they produce to communicate.

The alpacas in Tiganjica mingle with the visitors who often come in organized tours to see the animals and spend time in their company.

Written on a board are house rules. Visitors are asked not to approach the alpacas from behind or feed them any food they brought along. Guests are instead given small buckets with carrots, lettuce and apples.

Visits must be prearranged and the cost is around 10 euros ($11.35), which includes a drink and a bucket with alpaca food.

All six animals differ in character, according to the alpacas' carer Simona Frangi, who said a black alpaca called Ljubica is grumpy, while Snezana is the herd leader despite being the smallest of all.

“They are very sensitive to people's intentions,” Frangi explained. “They feel if someone wants to harm them, they move away. But if someone wants to offer something, they will come close.”

Ostojin runs a small zoo within his resort, which also includes a restaurant and a garden on the family estate. Ostojin said it all started because he and his brother were bringing over injured animals to care for since they were boys.

The first alpaca came as a present from the Belgrade Zoo eight years ago. Ostojin said he “very much liked the energy, the emotion that this animal sends out.”

“Almost like a healing ability,” he said.

There was still about a month to go.

“A lot of the guys felt the same way,” the 37-year-old Benn said. “But with that, we got some rest, more time to prepare for this year and get our bodies right. Three years before, had some good runs. Not good enough, so it was nice to get some rest and take advantage of that extra time.”

The season opener at home Friday night against St. Louis will end the Stars' longest gap in five years between the end of one season and the start of the next. It comes 155 days after being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.

Dallas reached the Western Conference Final three seasons in a row before that, playing 100 games combined each time until at least late May with no more than 136 days until the next season opener.

“I think you want to find the positive things you can, and I think this was a big break for the guys,” general manager Jim Nill said. “They’ve played a lot of hockey, a lot intense hockey, a lot wear and tear, and this (was) a break physically and a break mentally. ... Look forward to seeing the results now on the ice."

The Stars were ready to go when camp started

At the start of the condensed training camp two weeks ago, before an expanded 84-game regular season, Nill said some players had been skating and working out at the team's facility since July.

When the Stars lost Game 6 at Minnesota on April 30, it was the first time since 2018 they were done playing before the start of May. They missed the playoffs then and had 180 days until the 2018-19 season opener.

“Everyone can use that extra time,” forward Jason Robertson said. “I’d rather have taken less time, obviously. But it was a different summer ... Maybe more time to train, more time to reflect. I feel good. I’m sure everyone else feels good.”

The Stars had more time to rest, recover and train

The extra time was certainly good for Mikko Rantanen, top center Roope Hintz and 34-year-old Tyler Seguin.

Rantanen returned for the end of the regular season and playoffs after a torn MCL in the Olympics, but Hintz didn't make it back after tearing his left hamstring on March 6. Seguin, at the end of his $78.8 million, eight-year contract, had right ACL surgery in December and was limited to 47 games the past two seasons because of injuries.

"The players that were banged up, they’re healthy now,” Nill said.

There were also benefits for Benn and 35-year-old Matt Duchene, both going into their 18th NHL seasons. And even 23-year-old center Wyatt Johnston after playing in all 390 Stars regular-season and playoff games since his NHL debut four years ago.

“For a summer of that length that he hasn’t had probably since he’s 19 ... he looks bigger and stronger," second-year coach Glen Gulutzan said.

Gulutzan said Benn, the only player he also had in his first stint as Stars coach from 2011-13, is probably the skinniest that he’s ever seen him.

“He trained like crazy this summer. He is actually really lean,” Gulutzan said. “He did some things differently than he normally did. He’s always trained hard and all that stuff, but just the way he went out and skated and practiced, I know he put an emphasis on different areas.”

Benn said the game is getting faster and that he’s “just trying to keep up.”

It was a long wait for the Stars even with early opening date

Dallas will be among the last seven teams that play season openers Friday night. The NHL season began Tuesday, and 10 teams will already be multiple games into their schedule by then.

Still, that Oct. 2 opening date is the earliest for the Stars since Oct. 1, 1999, when they raised the banner for the Stanley Cup championship they won 3 1/2 months earlier.

The Stars last made the Stanley Cup Final in the Canadian bubble that ended in late September 2020, after a nearly five-month pause because of the pandemic. There was a 116-day gap before a reduced 56-game regular season opened the following January. They then missed the postseason and had 157 days before a normal October opener, and the first of their current five consecutive playoff seasons.

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See AP’s full NHL coverage here

Bueckers waved toward her backcourt mate, but she wasn't telling Ogunbowale to get out of the way. She was telling her to get open.

After all, Bueckers knew who the hot hand was — and it wasn't the 2025 No. 1 overall pick and Rookie of the Year who is in her first playoff series.

Ogunbowale took a pass from Bueckers on the left baseline, dribbled toward the corner and hit an off-balance corner 3-pointer, sending the game to overtime and her on the way to a WNBA playoff-record 45 points as the Wings won a thriller 108-100 on Wednesday night, forcing a Game 3 in their first-round series.

The deciding game will be Friday night in San Francisco, where the Valkyries won the series opener by 24 points.

Golden State is trying to advance in the playoffs for the first time in the franchise’s second season. The Wings are trying to reach the semifinals for the second time in six postseason appearances since moving to the Dallas area in 2016.

Ogunbowale opened the extra period of Game 2 by banking in a 3, then hit another one to put Dallas ahead for good at 103-100 with 1:46 remaining. The four-time All-Star easily topped her previous playoff best of 24 points after scoring 10 points on just seven shots in the series opener.

“We felt like we got pushed around out there when we played in San Francisco and especially me personally I don’t feel like I was aggressive,” said Ogunbowale, who was 5 of 8 from beyond the arc, 12 of 23 overall and 16 of 18 on free throws. “I didn’t know what I would score. I was going to shoot regardless because I just feel like seven shots isn’t enough to win playoffs and I have to be aggressive whether it’s going in or not.”

Bueckers, who scored 10 points, was mired in a 3-for-13 shooting night that included an air ball on a 3-pointer with the Wings trailing by three in the final two minutes of regulation. But she assisted on Ogunbowale's tying 3, and again on a the banked 3 to start OT. Bueckers had four assists.

“For us to do what we did today without Paige having the type of game that she always has offensively for us, to come out with a win is huge,” Wings coach Jose Fernandez said. “We had other people step up.”

Ogunbowale's shot for a 93-93 tie with 4.1 seconds left in regulation of Game 2 was followed by Gabby Williams getting called for an offensive foul on the inbound play after a Golden State timeout.

That call was reversed on replay, so instead of Aziaha James having a chance to give Dallas the lead at the free-throw line, there was a jump ball at center court with 3.0 seconds to go. After a scramble for the loose ball, Golden State's desperation shot was way off target, and after the buzzer.

Williams scored a career-high 36 points, regular season or playoffs, but missed all six of her shots in the final 1:31 of overtime to finish 12 of 23 from the field.

“We got one at home, and we got to bring our best,” Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase said. “That was not our best. Tomorrow’s got to be clear minds, clear focus, clear game plan, and then be ready to go for the game at home.”

Ogunbowale scored 22 points in the fourth quarter and overtime — 11 in each period. She passed her previous overall career high of 41 points with the 3 that put Dallas up for good.

Dallas' Alysha Clark tied her playoff career high with 21 points, and Aziaha James added 13.

Kaila Charles scored 14 points for the Valkyries, and Kayla Thornton had 13.

With the scored tied at 98 in the extra period, Ogunbowale and Tiffany Hayes had to be separated after making contact. Both were called for flagrant fouls, and each made a pair of free throws with 2:26 remaining.

The Valkyries didn't score again, shooting 2 of 12 in overtime.

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See AP’s full WNBA coverage here

Trump’s travel on Thursday to Texas and Oklahoma kicks off what the president said will be a 32-day campaign blitz leading up to Nov. 3. Vance will be stumping in Florida, putting the Republican Party’s highest-ranking officials in areas where GOP candidates once expected to have glide paths to victory but are now facing tougher races.

A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that only 17% of U.S. adults approve of Trump's handling of the cost of living. Just 26% approve of his handling of the economy overall, marking a new low.

Republicans have expressed growing pessimism about their chances in the election, which will determine control of Congress, as the president has repeatedly dismissed concerns about high costs and gas prices as his unpopular war in Iran drags on.

According to Trump, his party’s headwinds are merely a matter of poor public relations about a job he says is well done.

“We’re not getting the word out,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “I mean, we’re just not getting it.”

That’s why, he said, he will be traveling all over and trying to persuade GOP voters to pretend his name is on the ballot.

“I’m going out because nobody’s selling it,” Trump said.

Democrats say Trump and the Republicans are desperate

Delanie Bomar, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, said in a statement that “the president is barnstorming the country, energizing our base, and supercharging Republican candidates in battleground districts and beyond. We have the resources to spend, and Republicans are full steam ahead to protect and expand our majorities.”

The Democratic National Committee said Trump and Vance are "desperately trying to rally their base as the midterm elections approach and Republicans face defeat.”

“Donald Trump and JD Vance started a deadly and costly war with Iran that sent the economy spiraling and pushed prices even higher, and now — in the final stretch to the midterms — they’re desperately pleading with voters to 'give (them) another chance,'” said DNC deputy communications director Kendall Witmer.

In Oklahoma, Trump will campaign with Republican Mike Mazzei, who is running against Democratic state House Minority Leader Cyndi Munson in the race for governor.

Democratic Governors Association spokesperson Kevin Donohoe said Trump’s campaign rally shows that Republicans “are in full-on panic mode.”

“This race continues to get more competitive — and national Republicans are right to be worried about Mazzei,” he said.

The event will be held on the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, putting Trump in the company of just a handful of U.S. presidents who have visited tribal nations while in office.

Before his evening Oklahoma stop, Trump will tour a truck manufacturing facility in Texas, where Republicans are spending heavily to try to bolster state Attorney General Ken Paxton in a Senate race. Paxton faces a very competitive challenge from Democratic state Rep. James Talarico.

Paxton was planning to be with Trump at the official White House event Thursday in Denton, two campaign officials familiar with Paxton’s plans said on the condition of anonymity to discuss the candidate’s schedule before it was made public.

Vance is also stumping for GOP candidates

Trump will be campaigning in more politically competitive areas in the days and weeks ahead as he embarks on his travel blitz, but Republican officials will not send him to places where they think his presence could drag down their candidates, according to a person familiar with the party’s strategy who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Trump’s Oklahoma visit, and likewise one on Friday to Alabama, are aimed at hitting two targets with one stop, the person said.

Republican officials have noted that Durant is close to the Dallas and Fort Worth media market, meaning Trump’s message will also be carried to Texas voters, and he’s expected to talk about Paxton even while addressing voters in the neighboring state.

His Friday stop in Mobile, Alabama, is aimed not only at boosting Sen. Tommy Tuberville as he runs for Alabama governor but also at shoring up support in Florida’s adjacent panhandle for Republican Rep. Byron Donalds. Donalds is running for Florida governor against David Jolly, the Republican-turned-independent who is now running as a Democrat.

Donalds' campaign in heavily GOP Florida comes as Republicans there have faced some turbulence and voter concerns about affordability and artificial intelligence data centers have become central issues.

While Trump is in Oklahoma and Texas, Vance will stump with Donalds in central Florida on Thursday.

Vance’s visit to Lakeland comes a day after the vice president campaigned in Texas. He rallied with Republican candidate Eric Flores, who is in a tight U.S. House race in south Texas.

Vance, speaking in Harlingen, Texas, on Wednesday, acknowledged broader discontentment over the high prices in the U.S. but shifted the blame away from Trump and Republicans.

“I know that there are people out there who are frustrated by the pace of progress,” he said, but "we have spent every single day fighting for you, digging ourselves out of the hole that Joe Biden left us in.”

Trump will also campaign on Saturday in Vandalia, Ohio, and on Monday in Grand Island, Nebraska.

Trump is expected to campaign for the GOP almost daily

In a meeting on Capitol Hill this week, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles described privately to GOP senators that Trump will have a near-daily sprint of campaigning ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms.

Wiles showed Republicans the president’s upcoming travel schedule, which attendees described as extensive and almost every day, all across the country.

West Virginia Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said that White House officials are “acknowledging the headwinds” but that “they have a strategy, and we have a strategy,” including money that the president’s operation will continue to deploy.

Capito also defended the White House’s plan to send Trump to traditionally conservative territory, arguing that he can motivate the Republican base not just where he travels but elsewhere in the country because he has such a broad reach.

“He can get more of his voters out — that are going to be our voters — than anybody else,” Capito said.

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Associated Press reporters Seung Min Kim in Washington, Jesse Bedayn in Austin, Texas, and Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.

The administration has dedicated enormous resources to what election experts and administrators characterize as a comparatively small issue — noncitizens who, often due to misunderstanding the law, add their votes to the tens of millions of ballots cast during national elections.

On Wednesday, Attorney General Todd Blanche announced federal charges against 10 people in Minnesota alleged to have voted illegally over the last three elections, a period in which more than 8 million ballots were cast in the state.

“We’re focused on providing accountability and restoring trust in our elections,” Blanche said, lamenting that the media did not take seriously the charges for voter fraud his office has brought.

He said those added up to 90 for various types of election misconduct, including 50 against people who are alleged to have voted as noncitizens.

Even the 90 cases, which conflate voter fraud cases involving citizens of both political parties with those alleging noncitizen voting, are nominal in terms of the number of votes cast during presidential elections. It's nowhere near enough votes to swing any significant federal or even state election.

The U.S. had nearly 228 million registered voters for the 2024 presidential election, with more than 152 million ballots cast.

“They're incredibly low numbers no matter how you slice it," said Aaron Blacksberg of the Institute for Responsive Government, who was on a panel of election officials and experts on Wednesday in Washington, D.C., just before Blanche's announcement.

Noncitizen voting is part of administration's messaging about widespread voter fraud

The continuing drumbeat from the administration about voter fraud and noncitizens casting ballots, even when their own investigations show it's rare, is one reason Democrats, civil rights groups and many election officials are bracing for the possibility of Trump intervening in the November vote.

The election officials who gathered with Blacksberg held a media roundtable during which they reassured voters that they are prepared for any possible disruptions this fall.

Democrats and civil rights groups have filed multiple lawsuits to try to prevent the Trump administration from sending armed agents to the polls, something the administration insists it will not do. Trump has lamented that he did not order the military to seize voting machines in 2020, leading many election officials and Democrats to brace for that possibility in the fall.

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a letter to a U.S. senator last month that there are no such plans for the military.

The scarcity of actual fraud or voting by noncitizens was one reason why election officials, courts and some of Trump’s own officials rejected his claims that he lost the 2020 election due to massive fraud. Now back in office, Trump has launched a sweeping probe to try to retroactively prove his false claims. His administration has directed Homeland Security and other federal agents to scour voter rolls to identify noncitizen voters. A whistleblower statement filed earlier this month with Congress says the effort may violate state laws and gives agents only 12 minutes to determine whether a flagged person is actually a citizen.

Distinguishing any noncitizens on voter rolls from the many legal voters who may have similar names, birth dates or other identifying information is why many voting rights groups and Democrats have resisted the administration's aggressive campaign. They worry it would disenfranchise more legal voters than it would block illegal ones.

Plenty of evidence to show that noncitizen voting is a minuscule problem

There's a history behind those concerns. In Kansas, a 2011 law requiring proof of citizenship to vote blocked the registration of more than 31,000 U.S. citizens before a federal judge declared the law unconstitutional.

Trump pushed Republicans to pass a law reminiscent of the Kansas measure, but it could not overcome resistance in the Senate from Democrats and even some Republicans. The president then tried to limit mail voting through executive action, but that was blocked by the courts and ultimately stopped from taking effect for the midterms by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The administration has routinely issued press releases noting large numbers of “suspected” noncitizen voters in certain areas, only to have to later amend the total to something far less.

In July, Trump claimed Nevada had 1,500 noncitizen voters on its rolls, but after his administration had to identify them to the state, the number of actual registered noncitizens turned out to be zero.

More recently, the top election official in Arizona's Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, announced that the Trump administration's noncitizen database flagged 60 possible noncitizen voters in a county where more than 2 million voters cast ballots in 2024. The actual number of illegal voters, disclosed by county prosecutors when they filed charges this week, was eight. The Supreme Court has allowed the Trump administration to use that database to find purported illegal voters during November’s election.

Investigations in previous years resulted in similar findings. In Ohio, prosecutors secured indictments against nine people for voting as noncitizens over the span of 10 years. The state has some 8 million registered voters. During the presidential election two years ago, Georgia’s secretary of state found that just 20 of the state’s 8.2 million registered voters were not U.S. citizens.

On Wednesday, Blanche acknowledged that such cases were sporadic and not connected, undercutting the notion — promoted by Trump himself — that they are tied to some vast conspiracy to throw elections: “I don’t think we can say there’s a pattern we’ve identified,” Blanche said. “You know, I think that — that every case is different.”

DOJ's 10 charges in Minnesota amount to tiny fraction of 8.5 million ballots cast

Administration officials continued to toss around large-sounding numbers during the news conference. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin claimed his agency “has 1,600 voter fraud cases that we're investigating and 300,000 more that we're getting to.”

Daniel Rosen, the U.S. attorney for Minnesota, alleged that “the state itself fosters an environment that seems to encourage non-citizens to break the law and vote.”

In a statement, the office of Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, a Democrat, noted that it is a felony for a noncitizen to cast a ballot.

“These indictments affirm the fact that noncitizen voting is a vanishingly rare crime,” it said. “If these indictments result in convictions, that will amount to ten individuals over a period in which around 8.5 million votes were cast in Minnesota.”

Voters must attest that they are U.S. citizens when they register to vote. Violating that can be punishable as a felony, leading to jail time and deportation.

Blanche alluded to the complexity and effort that go into these probes.

“These cases aren’t easy, right? So if you get a list of suspected voters who shouldn’t be voting, whether they’re here illegally or they’re just not eligible to vote because they’re aliens, you can’t just go and arrest them. There’s a full investigation that” the federal government has to do.

Election experts say that's why federal law enforcement has traditionally not mobilized to combat an issue that is almost nonexistent. Most voter fraud cases are prosecuted locally.

“It does appear that there have been a lot of resources redirected away from things like violent crime and counterterrorism, which is where Homeland Security usually focuses its efforts,” said David Becker, a former Department of Justice attorney who now runs the Center for Election Innovation & Research.

Becker added that it would not have been “unusual at all in past administrations to deprioritize” the voting focus because “it’s just such a small issue.”

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Riccardi reported from Denver.

“It should be normal to take time to create your next album. I know we live in a world where we want everything fast,” the three-time Grammy winner said in an interview with The Associated Press. For inspiration, she said she had to let life take its course.

“I’m OK with people asking for more music or feeling like, ‘Dang, I missed her.’ Or this is a comeback, because that makes me feel like there was a gap in time where they noticed that I was gone,” the artist said.

The “On My Mama” singer returns Friday with “Frequency of Love,” a 22-track studio project that follows her Grammy-winning “Jaguar II,” which she made in 2023.

The new album is powered by singles like the house-flavored “Reach Out,” yacht R&B-inspired “Juicy” and “Let Me,” which is a slow jam that already reached No. 1 on Billboard’s adult R&B airplay chart. Some of the new work features heavyweights Bruno Mars and SZA, as well as R&B hitmakers Bryson Tiller, Leon Thomas and Chlöe Bailey.

“I’m really, really, really passionate about love. ... A lot of it was just reflective of what I was going through or feeling while dating,” said Monét, who originally considered creating a yacht-R&B album. “The album covers many bases, including love for my daughter, love for the world, what I want to see for it.”

Monét aimed to channel Michael Jackson's risk-taking artistry

“Frequency of Love,” executive produced by Camper, takes listeners on a sonic excursion beyond romance, with several interpolations of classic '90s R&B songs skillfully peppered throughout.

“Almost,” which includes a reference to Brandy’s “Almost Doesn’t Count,” is a sensual take on feeling sexually unsatisfied, while “For You” reimagines Kenny Lattimore’s classic romantic ballad. “Care for Somebody (Interlude)” is Monét's rendition of a song she first encountered as a child while watching Halle Berry in “Introducing Dorothy Dandridge” with her grandmother.

Michael Jackson’s musical growth between “Off the Wall” and “Thriller” inspired Monét’s creative process. While she’s quick to halt any comparison to the commercial and critical acclaim of one of music’s most prolific artists, she aimed to channel the same risk-taking artistry.

“I did not make ‘Thriller,’” Monét said. “I just made my version of what I would make with that mindset.”

The singer, 37, is keenly aware of heightened expectations. But she was slightly unprepared for some negativity that followed her 2024 Grammy wins for best new artist, best R&B album and best non-classical engineered album.

“I think there was a flip from me being an underdog that everyone wanted to support,” she said. “If I get millions of supporters, I can also have millions of haters. But who am I paying attention to? And that’s what the album for me is about.”

Monét was in the recording studio — and in the kitchen

Recently serving as a special guest on the European stretch of Bruno Mars’ “The Romantic” tour, Monét is gearing up for her own “Frequency of Love” dates, visiting 27 North American cities starting in late October.

After beginning her career penning songs for Ariana Grande, Blackpink, Chloe x Halle and Selena Gomez, Monét is still interested in writing collaborations and working with “unexpected” artists. She also dreams of writing scripted TV and film projects, including a comedy.

A creative at heart, Monét also recently graduated from the Institute of Culinary Education as its top student. During class, she’d listen to music associated with the country of the dish she was preparing. Often bringing meals to her production team during recording sessions, she says the vibes of the international music, and the camaraderie that food and fellowship can bring, would influence some of the sonic tones of her songs.

So why would a performer at the height of her career become a chef?

“Maybe rebellion. ... I want to do something that I don’t get paid for, that I’m not defined by,” said Monét. “You don’t have to make your schedule around only the things that clearly pay you. And you never know where it will take you.”

“Frequency of Love” will largely dictate where her career is headed next. But Monét hopes to move with intention and a spirit of gratitude, which she's prioritizing throughout her life.

“I went through a moment where I was critical of everything. I was looking around and seeing what could be better: criticizing myself, the workplace, the state of my mood, the state of music, state of voice, my body, just nitpicking everything,” she said. “And so, it’s really been a journey to come to a place where I can operate in that shift — that paradigm shift — that makes me OK with everything that is, and also OK with everything that is going to come.”

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Follow Associated Press entertainment journalist Gary Gerard Hamilton at @GaryGHamilton on all his social media platforms.

The rally is part of Trump’s recent campaign push through deep red states, where he has been stumping for Republican candidates and promoting his agenda ahead of November’s midterm elections.

The Choctaw Nation is renting its venue for the rally but not sponsoring the event, it said.

“We hope his visit provides an opportunity to learn more about what we do as a sovereign nation for our members and for all people in southeast Oklahoma,” Choctaw Nation Principal Chief Gary Batton said in a statement.

It's not the first time Trump has been to a tribal nation. In the homestretch of the 2020 election campaign, Trump visited the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina and endorsed its push to secure federal recognition as a tribal nation, which he signed into law in 2025.

Tribal delegations have been meeting with presidents in Washington since the Early Republic, but presidential visits to reservations have been few and far between. The purpose and tone of those visits have changed dramatically as the relationship between the U.S. and tribal nations has evolved.

Early visits promoted assimilation

What was likely the first visit to a reservation by a sitting U.S. president occurred by happenstance. While traveling to Yellowstone National Park in the summer of 1883, President Chester A. Arthur met with Shoshone and Arapaho leaders on the Wind River Reservation and complimented the tribes’ “practice of industrial pursuits,” according to an account by Lt. Gen. Philip Sheridan at the time.

While there, Arthur’s delegation pressed Shoshone Chief Washakie and Arapaho Chief Black Coal to consent to breaking up the reservation they shared into private parcels — a move aimed at dismantling tribal sovereignty and solving what Arthur termed the “Indian problem.” Both chiefs refused.

Other early presidential visits to tribal land similarly reflected an era when the U.S. tried to undermine tribal sovereignty and assimilate Native people into white society. Theodore Roosevelt’s 1903 trek to Havasupai land at the bottom of the Grand Canyon preceded the forced removal of that tribe to make way for a national park.

During his 1927 visit to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, President Calvin Coolidge promoted assimilationist boarding schools.

Recent presidential visits have focused on tribal sovereignty

President Bill Clinton made Pine Ridge a stop on his 1999 “New Markets Tour,” billing the visit as the first by a sitting president to tribal land since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1934 trip to the Blackfeet Nation in Montana. Clinton acknowledged the federal government failed to meet its obligations to hundreds of tribal nations and called for investment in Pine Ridge's economy.

“We have tried to have a more respectful, more proper relationship with the tribal governments of this country, to promote more genuine independence, but also to give more genuine support,” Clinton said.

In 2014, President Barack Obama met with Dakota youths and attended a powwow on the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota, speaking about expanding economic and educational opportunities in Indian Country and promoting tribes' inherent right to govern themselves. The following year, Obama spent time in the Iñupiaq village of Kotzebue in Alaska, highlighting the impacts of climate change on Arctic communities.

President Joe Biden made a somber apology

In 2024, President Joe Biden traveled to the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona to formally apologize for the federal government’s role in separating Indigenous children from their families and forcing them to attend boarding schools run by the U.S. and churches. A probe by Biden’s administration found that in addition to being stripped of their languages and cultures, many of those children experienced physical, emotional and sexual abuse. At least 970 died, and federal officials acknowledged the true number is likely higher.

Speaking alongside boarding school survivors and their descendants, Biden called that 150-year era a “blot on American history.”

“It’s a sin on our soul,” Biden said. “Quite frankly, there’s no excuse that this apology took 50 years to make.”

The visit marked a rare acknowledgment of the assimilationist policies that shaped some of the earliest presidential encounters with tribal nations.

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This story is published through the Global Indigenous Reporting Network at The Associated Press.

And top starter Sonny Gray wasn't happy about being lifted after only 70 pitches.

“I think I’m the best pitcher in the American League going through the order the third time. I think that’s a fact,” Gray said. “I would have liked to have been trusted in that moment.”

For the second consecutive season, the Red Sox were sent home for the winter by their biggest rivals as the New York Yankees rolled to a 9-2 victory Wednesday night and a two-game sweep of their Wild Card Series.

Boston was outscored 18-2 overall and left to lament a miserable finish to this roller-coaster ride of a season that included Tracy taking over when Alex Cora was fired in April.

Tracy's decision-making came under scrutiny after both playoff games against the Yankees. In Boston's 9-0 defeat a night earlier, Tracy pulled rookie starter Payton Tolle after 4 2/3 innings and 83 pitches in a 1-0 game.

Last year, the Red Sox won their Wild Card Series opener before losing to New York in a deciding Game 3 as they got overpowered by Cam Schlittler, who pitched another playoff gem against his hometown team Tuesday night.

“To have it end here two times in a row is tough,” shortstop Trevor Story said.

Facing a Yankees lineup missing injured slugger Aaron Judge, the Red Sox gave up 26 hits in two games despite a pair of effective performances from their starting pitchers.

At the plate, Boston mustered only seven hits and finally snapped a 26-inning postseason scoring drought that dated to last year when Willson Contreras homered just over the right-center fence in the sixth Wednesday.

“It’s obviously been an eventful year," Tracy said. "In the moment right now you can’t think much more other than anything but the fact that we just lost a playoff series.”

Needing a victory to extend their season, the Red Sox sent Gray to the mound and the 18-game winner certainly gave them a chance. Boston trailed 1-0 in the fifth when the right-hander allowed a two-out single to Ben Rice that put runners at the corners.

Tracy then yanked Gray, eager to hand the ball to baseball's best bullpen during the regular season.

“I felt good. You know, I felt crisp. I felt sharp. I felt like I was just out there competing. And yeah, I mean, I got clipped for a solo homer and then some singles, but I felt like I stayed on the attack throughout. I was just executing what I wanted to do," Gray said. “I’m frustrated, for sure. You know, not ready for it to end. A lot of emotions.”

Asked about the move, Contreras put his finger over his lips to zip them shut.

“It’s not enough when you have talent or you have data or you have computers that’s telling you what to do, because this is baseball," he said. "The data is here to help us, but at the end of the day you are going to have to need experience and veteran guys to win games.”

In both games of the series, Tracy gave the ball to left-handed reliever Erik Miller after taking out his starting pitcher.

On Tuesday, Rice greeted Miller with a 423-foot solo homer to straightaway center field.

On Wednesday, Tracy summoned Miller to face a different left-handed hitter, Cody Bellinger — who batted .274 against lefties this season and .259 versus right-handers. In fact, his .310 batting average against left-handers over the past two years was the best of any left-handed hitter in the majors.

Bellinger made Tracy and the Red Sox pay, lining an RBI single to right field.

“We’re struggling to score runs,” Tracy said. “And when you get in spots where you're struggling to score runs and you’re already trailing, you feel like you’ve got to be aggressive and go.”

Back from a shoulder injury, ace starter Garrett Crochet entered in the sixth for his first outing since April 25 and first relief appearance since 2023 with the Chicago White Sox. The left-hander opened with a strikeout, but Spencer Jones reached safely on a wild pitch, and Crochet never got an out.

Bellinger's three-run homer off right-hander Garrett Whitlock capped a six-run inning that made it 8-1, and the Red Sox were done. A bullpen that led the majors with a 3.00 ERA during the regular season finished this series with a 20.25 ERA after giving up 15 runs, 15 hits and seven walks in 6 2/3 innings, with a .484 opponents' batting average.

Boston's latest downfall in the Bronx was a crushing end to a wild 2026 season for the Red Sox, who stumbled to a 32-46 start. Tracy was the skipper at Triple-A Worcester before getting promoted to interim manager in Boston, and the team finally began to take off with a four-game sweep of the Yankees at Fenway Park in late June.

After clinching a wild-card spot last week, the Red Sox removed the interim tag and named Tracy the 49th manager in team history, signing him to a three-year contract that runs through the 2029 season, with a club option for 2030. The team also exercised the 2029 and 2030 options on chief baseball officer Craig Breslow.

“I wasn't there for the highs and lows,” Crochet said. “For this team to do what it did do, to make it to this point, was nothing short of miraculous.”

Led by Gray and Contreras, among others, the Red Sox went on a 15-game winning streak in July that equaled a franchise record and used a 32-5 surge to climb back into contention. They became the fourth team in major league history to reach the postseason after falling 14 games under .500, and the first to qualify after losing as many as 44 of its first 75.

Gray, who can become a free agent after the World Series, went around the clubhouse to hug each of his teammates following Wednesday's defeat.

“I'm proud of what we accomplished,” the pitcher said. “We were left for dead there for a while.”

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

“I can tell you right now that the group isn’t satisfied with this,” he said.

The White Sox used a big first inning and a three-run homer from Chase Meidroth to propel them to a 7-3 victory and series win.

It’s the first time Chicago has won a playoff series since beating Houston in the World Series in 2005. Under the direction of Venable, the second-year skipper, and with a letter of support from Pope Leo XIV, the White Sox advanced to face AL Central champion Cleveland in the AL Division Series beginning Saturday in Cleveland.

They’re thrilled to give their fans in Chicago at least a couple of home playoff games after playing their first two postseason games on the road. Their first game at Rate Field will be Game 3 on Wednesday.

“They have been incredible all year,” Meidroth said. “So, the main thing was getting back to Chicago for some postseason baseball, and so we’re really blessed that we get to do that.”

The White Sox, who lost 100 games in each of the last three seasons, are the only team in major league history to follow consecutive 100-loss seasons with a playoff berth.

It’s an improbable and swift turnaround that most people — not even owner Jerry Reinsdorf — saw coming.

“I didn’t think it would come to fruition this fast, I really didn’t,” he told reporters postgame. “I really thought 2027 was the year that we would contend. But nobody told the players that they couldn’t do it.”

The White Sox were expected to be the worst team in their division again this season but instead made a 24-game jump to go 84-78 and capture a wild-card playoff spot.

Meidroth shared the important qualities that allowed them to defy expectations.

“Belief, energy, those are the two things,” he said. “Confidence. We got a young, hungry group, some veteran guys that we lean on. But, yeah, it’s been the same all year. We believe we can win every game.”

Entering this season, it had been an awful stretch for the White Sox, who set the record for most losses since 1899 when they dropped 121 games in 2024. It was a year that Reinsdorf reflected on as “depressing” on Wednesday night.

He lauded the work general manager Chris Getz did to build a strong foundation for the team to grow. And pointed to the blockbuster trade of left-hander Garrett Crochet to the Boston Red Sox after that dreadful season that netted them Meidroth, catcher Kyle Teel and outfielder Braden Montgomery as a turning point.

Venable, the 43-year-old who is in his first managerial role, is glad to have helped bring the White Sox back to respectability after their years in baseball’s basement.

“I’m really proud and I’m really just happy for everybody who over the last few years had experienced White Sox baseball when it obviously wasn’t at its best,” he said. “And it’s such a storied franchise and Jerry puts so much into this team, loves this team so much, and to be able to reward him and the city of Chicago who have been in our corner and supported us from day one that I’ve been there, it just feels really good.”

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Max Fried dominated the Red Sox in the playoffs for the second straight year, Cody Bellinger and Luis García Jr. homered, and the Yankees rolled to a 9-2 win Wednesday night that completed a two-game sweep.

“We enjoyed tonight. We got a lot more work to do,” Bellinger said.

New York will face AL East champion Tampa Bay in an AL Division Series starting Saturday.

“The fans were electric from the first pitch and the boys were hungry. We got a young, hungry team here," Yankees captain Aaron Judge said as teammates sprayed him with bubbly during the clubhouse celebration. “This makes me feel young every single time.”

Judge missed this series because of a calf injury and isn't sure whether he will play against the Rays, who beat New York 7-6 in the season series.

“Saturday’s a long ways away," he said.

Clinging to a 2-1 lead after Willson Contreras homered to end Boston's 26-inning postseason scoreless streak, the Yankees broke open the game with a six-run sixth after Spencer Jones reached on a wild pitch while striking out leading off — with the help of a video review.

García, acquired at the trade deadline, had three hits in his first postseason start, and Bellinger had four RBIs that included a three-run homer capping the sixth-inning burst that put New York ahead 8-1.

“Step one,” said Bellinger, who caught the ceremonial first pitch from his dad, Clay, a 2000 Yankees World Series champion. “Now we got to go into Tampa and play against a tough team."

Boston, which reached the playoffs after rebounding from a 32-46 start, lost last year's wild-card matchup after defeating the Yankees in the opener.

“Regardless of all the special things that happened this summer, and there was quite a few, the goal is to win the World Series and that ended for us tonight, so it’s frustrating,” Red Sox manager Chad Tracy said. “There’s a lot of things you can say, but in the moment right now, I think the guys only care that we lost. And it’s going to take some time to get over that.”

Boston, which also got a seventh-inning homer from Nick Sogard off Will Warren, was missing leadoff hitter Roman Anthony because of a hand injury. The Red Sox were held to a .117 average in the series (7 for 60) with 18 strikeouts and outscored 18-2.

Every starter had a hit for New York, which batted .382 in the series. Boston's bullpen had a 20.25 ERA.

“We played great baseball in a lot of ways here, obviously anchored by our two great starters," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.

Yankees batters hit .450 (9 for 20) with runners in scoring position after finishing 19th among the 30 teams with a .246 RISP during the regular season.

“I feel like it’s a whole new level from regular season to these last two days,” Austin Wells said.

A day after Cam Schlittler led New York to a 9-0 win, Fried pitched three-hit ball over six innings to win a postseason game for the first time since the 2021 World Series clincher with Atlanta.

New York started eight left-handed hitters against Sonny Gray, back on the mound where his career derailed during a dismal Yankees stretch in 2017 and ’18.

García's fourth-inning homer put the Yankees ahead and Bellinger, one of the top lefty-on-lefty hitters in the major leagues, added a fifth-inning RBI single against left-handed Erik Miller, who had just relieved.

Gray was disappointed he wasn't allowed to face Bellinger.

“I think I’m the best pitcher in the American League going through the order a third time. I think that’s a fact,” Gray said. "I would’ve liked to live or die with me in that moment, but that's the competitor I am. And, yeah, I think you can probably ask the guys and they felt the same way. So I felt strong. I felt confident. I felt convicted.”

Jones struck out both to start and end the bottom of the sixth, a weird half-inning that included a wild pitch, throwing error, stolen base, bunt single and intentional walk to Ben Rice that preceded Bellinger's homer.

"I can’t believe they were willing to face a guy like Belli with men on base there," Rice said.

Garrett Crochet, who beat the Yankees in last year's Wild Card Series opener, hadn't pitched since April 25 because of left shoulder inflammation when he bounced a sweeper off Adley Rutschman's chest. The catcher picked up the ball and threw to first, where umpire John Libka signaled that Jones was out. The Yankees appealed and the call was reversed by the video umpire at the commissioner's office.

“I couldn’t believe he was there,” Boone said. "I saw the ball squirt away a little bit. I didn’t think that much of it, and looked up and I was, like, 'Oh, he’s safe.'''

Jones swiped second and kept going to third when Rutschman’s throw skipped into center. Rookie George Lombard Jr. singled for his first postseason RBI, Jazz Chisholm Jr. singled and Trent Grisham loaded the bases with a bunt single.

Wells' sacrifice fly against Garrett Whitlock increased the lead to 4-1, Ryan McMahon hit an RBI groundout and Rice, who had four hits and six RBIs in the opener, was intentionally walked. Bellinger reached down and pulled a changeup into the right-center field seats.

Fried struck out six and walked one. He has allowed one run over 12 1/3 innings in the two Wild Card Series against the Red Sox.

“Definitely wasn’t sharp from the get-go but just wanted to challenge them, not try to give any free passes, especially in the first inning," Fried said.

After a night of celebration and a day off, the Yankees will head to Florida on Friday.

“There’s just so much more to do,” Bellinger said after the big night with his father on hand. “So obviously enjoy the moment, understand how cool it is, but keep on going.”

Up Next

New York RHP Gerrit Cole (10-9, 3.61), who would have started a third game against Boston, is likely to start Game 1 against the Rays.

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

The S&P 500 slipped 0.1% after swinging between earlier gains and losses and may be heading toward its seventh drop in the last eight days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 188 points, or 0.4% as of 10:45 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was virtually unchanged.

The losses were sharper in Europe, where bond yields saw a significant jump overnight. Stock indexes tumbled 1.7% in London and 1.6% in Paris after the yield on the 10-year U.K. government bond swung as high as 5.53% before falling to 5.37% and then charging upward again.

High yields slow the overall economy by making it more expensive for everyone to borrow money, while undercutting prices for stocks and other investments.

Yields are on the rise for a range of reasons, including worries about high inflation and oil prices, signals that the U.S. economy remains solid and governments' insistence to continue to spend much more money than they bring in.

Those worries don’t look to be going away anytime soon, and oil prices climbed again Thursday to keep the pressure up on inflation. The price for a barrel of Brent crude climbed 2.8% to $100.76, continuing its yo-yoing on uncertainty about when the war with Iran will allow the global oil industry to return to normal.

Further reports also signaled the U.S. economy is powering through its many challenges. Fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, which could mean fewer layoffs. That followed a report on Wednesday that said the U.S. economy’s overall growth was even stronger in the spring than earlier thought.

A separate report on Thursday said growth for U.S. manufacturing also continued in September. Potentially more concerning in that report from the Institute for Supply Management was that increases in prices accelerated, which could mean further pressure inflation.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury briefly neared 5.34% following the manufacturing report, before pulling back to 5.29%, where it was late Wednesday. It's near its highest level since 2002, and it's up from less than 5% just last week and from less than 4% before the war with Iran began.

High yields can hurt real-estate owners in particular. Not only do they raise the cost of borrowing, they can also make investors looking for income leave real-estate stocks and their dividends for bonds.

Real-estate stocks in the S&P 500 fell 0.8% for one of the larger losses in the index. BXP, which owns office buildings around the country, sank 1.7%.

Helping to limit Wall Street's losses was strength for technology stocks after Micron Technology delivered a stronger profit report for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

The maker of memory chips for computers said growth is strengthening, and it gave forecasts for upcoming profit and revenue that topped analysts’ estimates. CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said it’s benefiting from the AI boom, which is driving demand for memory.

Micron’s stock fell 1.7%, which some analysts attributed to how much its stock had already jumped before the profit report. It came into the day with a gain of more than 270% for the year so far, towering over the less than 12% rise for the overall S&P 500.

But other AI-related stocks benefited from Micron’s optimism about continued demand related to AI. Nvidia rose 1%, and Applied Materials added 4.3%

Outside of tech, Accenture leaped 20.3% after the consulting and services company reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It saw growth around the world, from the Americas to Asia.

In stock markets abroad, Asian indexes did better than the rest of the world thanks to optimism around AI following Micron’s profit report. Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 3.3%, and South Korea’s Kospi climbed 1.9%.

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

Keith Sonderling, who was confirmed 47-41, has been the acting secretary since April and has served in multiple roles within the department over the course of his career. He was picked for the job after the White House announced that Lori Chavez-DeRemer would be leaving her post to take a job in the private sector. Her exit followed multiple allegations that she had abused the power of her position.

Sonderling was a senior advisor in the department during Trump’s first term and later served as a Republican member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He also taught about the laws the department enforces as an adjunct professor at George Washington University. He returned to the department in Trump’s second term and was confirmed as deputy secretary in March of last year.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said it was clear Sonderling was qualified for the position when the committee he chairs advanced his nomination to the full Senate.

“I’m confident that he will protect workers, help businesses create more jobs, and help workers navigate AI-driven changes in the workforce,” Cassidy said.

Democrats opposed Sonderling's confirmation, citing administration policies at the department they disagreed with, including management of some Department of Education grant programs at Labor. That’s been happening as Trump works to fulfill his campaign pledge to close the Department of Education entirely.

The Labor Department's mission is focused on administering federal labor laws to guarantee workers’ rights to fair, safe, and healthy working conditions.

“I fear any vote to confirm you is for more of the same: to strip overtime protections for our workers, to undercut our unions and to let giant corporations get away with robbery, literally,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said during Sonderling's confirmation hearing.

At the same time, record amounts of sargassum continue to wash ashore.

But what if one problem could help solve the other?

At the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School, scientists are racing to find a solution, finding an opportunity in all that waste.

“Sargassum is no longer just a nuisance. It has become a big problem with what to do with it,” said Dr. Daniel Benetti, director of aquaculture at the Rosenstiel School.

“Right now, it’s basically put to waste. And not only is it a waste, it’s loaded with, you know, all the arsenic and other heavy metals,” Benetti said.

Scientists are testing whether South Florida beach sargassum can become food — not for people, but for black soldier fly larvae.

“So this is our Black Soldier Fly experimental system,” said Dr. Julio Camperio.

“And the idea here is to see how the larvae react with the sargassum as a feed source,” Camperio said.

The two-year project is the brainchild of Camperio, who has been working with black soldier flies since 2017. Known as nature’s recyclers, they’re easy to raise and will eat just about anything.

“These larvae started about, I would say, the size of a rice grain, about 10 to 11 days ago. So they just live in the substrate and then they keep consuming what they need,” Camperio said.

Camperio feeds the larvae different blends of food waste and beach sargassum, tracking their growth to find the right mix.

But the larvae may be doing something even more important: detoxifying the arsenic often present in sargassum.

“They are either essentially transforming inorganic arsenic to organic, or they’re only accumulating the organic and defecating the inorganic,” Camperio said.

It’s a short but busy two-week life cycle for the larvae. Before they turn into flies, they’re harvested and become food themselves — fish food.

More than half the seafood we eat is now farm-raised, and those fish need to eat, too. The larvae raised here could one day feed farmed tilapia, turning sargassum into a new link in the food chain.

“We’re going to be 9 billion in a couple of decades. And the current practices of agriculture farming and fisheries won’t be enough,” Benetti said.

“To achieve the goal of feeding the world is to become more ecologically and economically efficient. And this is what is the drive behind the work that we’re doing,” Benetti said.

And even what the larvae leave behind doesn’t go to waste. Their molted skins and waste, known as frass, can become fertilizer. Here, it will be used to grow basil.

“The idea here is to basically provide the city of Miami potentially a new tool that we can use to set up systems where we can recycle sargassum,” Camperio said.

But first, the science.

Researchers still need to see how the tilapia and basil plants respond and, critically, whether any arsenic makes its way through.

If it works, this could be a game changer for how we deal with the tons of sargassum washing onto our shores.

“So instead of burying them in the sand or instead of bringing them to landfill we can put them in a mini black soldier fly farm and in two weeks, that waste will become inputs for other industries,” Camperio said.

“We’re just focusing on the science and the biology to kind of do the first stepping stones and see what direction to go,” he said.

“It could work and could make a difference,” Benetti said.

While still in the experimental stage, the University of Miami says the data shows it’s working. But the project can only make an impact if it’s scaled up.

Researchers have initial seed funding but are looking for private-sector investment toward an end goal of black soldier fly larva farms.

“Our investigators conducted surveillance, followed him, and in this case, were able to arrest him in the same yellow taxi cab just blocks away from where he committed his first crime,” Miami Beach police officer Christopher Bess said.

Police say taxi driver Reynoso Osias was working with 29-year-old Dasheona Ford, who would ride in the back of the taxi and target people who had too much to drink.

At least two victims, on separate occasions over the summer, told detectives their phones were stolen and money was fraudulently moved from their bank accounts using biometric information on their cellphones while they were intoxicated.

Osias appeared before a judge Wednesday and faced charges including kidnapping, organized scheme to defraud, unlawful use of a communications device and conspiracy for strong-armed robbery.

“Kidnapping organized scheme to defraud. Against the computer user. Unlawful use of a communications device,” the judge said.

“Conspiracy for strong armed robbery,” the judge added.

Ford, who was seen in a prior booking photo for unrelated crimes, is still on the run.

During Osias’ court appearance, the judge asked whether he owned his home and had money he could use to pay for a lawyer.

“You own your home?” the judge asked.

“Yes,” Osias said.

“You have money you could use to pay for a lawyer?” the judge asked.

“Yes,” Osias said.

The taxi driver’s arrest happened around 2 a.m. Tuesday as investigators believe he was targeting his next victim.

Police found eight iPhones underneath the driver’s seat of the taxi.

“Leads from victims, city cameras and license plate readers that we know are a little contentious in this state, but it helped us identify this driver and arrest him shortly thereafter,” Bess said.

Carter Eslick, 20, also received three years of supervised probation during a sentencing hearing in Coconino County Superior Court. Eslick had pleaded guilty to a felony hazing charge in the Jan. 31 death of Colin Daniel Martinez, 18, at an off-campus house.

An autopsy found Martinez died of alcohol poisoning with a blood-alcohol content of 0.425% — more than five times the state's legal limit for drivers 21 and over.

Martinez was among four Delta Tau Delta pledges who shared two bottles of vodka to ensure they vomited, according to court documents. Witnesses reported adjusting Martinez’s sleeping position and checking his pulse and breathing to look for signs of alcohol poisoning throughout the night, the documents said.

Martinez's parents appeared remotely in court, still grieving their son, and said they want accountability and reform within Greek life, Phoenix television station azfamily.com reported.

Eslick was the fraternity’s pledge master at the time and was responsible for welcoming new members. He apologized Wednesday to Martinez's family and said he takes “full responsibility for the hand I played in that ritual.”

Coconino County Attorney Ammon Barker said no sentence can undo the harm to the Martinez family.

“My hope is that this case helps people understand the serious dangers of hazing and encourages them to speak up and intervene before another family experiences this kind of loss,” Barker said in a statement.

Judge Stacy Krueger said Eslick knew what he did was dangerous and was troubled that no one spoke out against it.

Eslick could face additional jail time if he doesn't meet the conditions of probation, which include creating and delivering 305 anti-hazing presentations and keeping the court updated on his progress. He also can't use alcohol or drugs unless prescribed.

The university suspended the fraternity after Martinez’s death, and the national organization later closed the NAU chapter.

The Trump administration had granted visas, albeit with severe restrictions, to Iran’s president and foreign minister and their delegations to attend the annual meeting of world leaders despite the hostilities between the two countries.

While President Masoud Pezeshkian left New York a day after speaking at the United Nations last week, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had remained behind ostensibly to participate in indirect talks with the U.S. on opening the Strait of Hormuz, ending the conflict and resuming negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program.

According to some accounts, Araghchi had planned to stay in New York until Wednesday.

After little progress was made in weekend meetings between Iranian and Qatari mediators, Rubio lost patience and told the Iranians on Monday that Araghchi and his delegation had to leave New York immediately, according to the two officials, who were familiar with the decision and spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an internal administration process.

Rubio, according to one official, determined that the Iranians had “overstayed their welcome” and that since the high-level meetings at the U.N. were over, they should leave.

Ararghchi and his team departed New York very early Tuesday.

The Iranian U.N. delegation on Wednesday denied that they were ordered to leave.

“The Iranian delegation left New York on Monday evening, in accordance with the schedule that had also been communicated to the U.S. Department of State in advance on September 17,” the delegation wrote on its official X account. “Having achieved nothing, the State Department has resorted to propagating baseless and worthless news.”

Rubio’s decision was first reported by Axios.

Atlanta, which had lost in the first round in each of the last three seasons, will host Game 1 of the semifinals on Sunday against New York, which swept Minnesota to become the first No. 8 seed to eliminate a No. 1 seed in the league’s 30-year history.

Canada made 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions in the fourth quarter, and she added a jumper from the free-throw line on Atlanta's next trip for an 89-70 lead with 2:58 left.

Canada also had 11 assists and seven rebounds. Rhyne Howard finished with 15 points before fouling out with 6:03 left in the fourth quarter. Angel Reese also had 15 points and Naz Hillmon added 10.

Sonia Citron scored 25 points for Washington. Kiki Iriafen had 15 points and 16 rebounds and became the first player in franchise history to have a first-half double-double in a playoff game.

Atlanta led 41-28 with 1:26 left in the first half before Washington closed on a 7-0 run, capped by Citron's shot in the lane just before the buzzer. The Mystics were hurt by 11 first-half turnovers.

Washington went on a 14-2 run starting in the third quarter to get within 65-62. But Atlanta scored the next 13 points, capped by a 3-pointer by Canada, to rebuild a double-digit lead at 78-62.

The Mystics were making their first playoff appearance since winning the 2019 WNBA championship.

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See AP’s full WNBA coverage here

The team will play at Amerant Bank Field on the Nova Southeastern University campus, sharing the venue with the club’s Gainbridge Super League women’s team.

“Fort Lauderdale has a proud soccer history, and the supporters who built it deserve to be part of what comes next,” said Tommy Smith, founder and chairman of Fort Lauderdale United FC. “We want to carry that passion forward while giving a new generation its own team, traditions and memories.”

Aly Hassan will serve as general manager of the new men’s team while continuing to oversee Fort Lauderdale United FC’s women’s professional team.

“South Florida has always produced talent,” Hassan said. “Too often that talent had to leave home to find its next step. Now it doesn’t have to.”

The men’s team will give aspiring players a clear pathway to pursue professional soccer close to home. Starting at the youth level, Fort Lauderdale United FC’s development programs will prepare players to achieve their sporting dreams.

To learn more about Founding Membership and follow preparations for the inaugural men’s season, visit https://www.ftlutd.com/mens/about/ and follow @FTLUTD on social media.

“I trained that way for many years without becoming still enough to search within myself,” said Yuan, who founded a kung fu academy in central China in 2004.

“But as you gradually settle into stillness, you begin to understand what the scriptures mean by spirit,” he added. “You can begin to rediscover yourself.”

That process is known as “entering the Dao” in martial arts. It is a guiding principle at Yuan’s academy in the sacred Wudang Mountains, where disciplines like kung fu and tai chi draw on Taoist thought.

Practitioners like Yuan start by strengthening the body. As they progress, the mind becomes more resilient and willpower develops.

“The body is a vehicle or vessel within which the spirit resides,” Yuan said. “You therefore need a healthy body capable of carrying your spirit.”

A search for healing led to a deeper martial arts practice

Yuan began practicing martial arts in the 1980s. Boxing and the Chinese combat sport of sanda attracted him at first.

He heard of Wudang later that decade. As his body ached with rheumatism, Yuan read an article claiming Taoist practices could heal him. So he packed his bags and moved to the mountains. There he became acquainted with Taoist temples and embraced practices such as standing meditation.

He came to understand that movement and stillness are interconnected, rather than opposites. That physical activity can help practitioners quiet the body, allowing them to become calm and grounded.

“I slowly became interested and eventually I benefited from the practice myself,” Yuan said. “That process was very profound for me.”

Yuan now seeks to share that knowledge with local and foreign students enrolled in the three programs at his academy.

One is a five-year course offering in-depth martial arts training. The second is focused on health and well-being, helping adults exercise and cultivate their minds. The third is a summer camp for children seeking exercise during school breaks.

Taoism has a long history at Wudang

Chinese philosopher Laozi is believed to have passed on teachings foundational to Taoism to his first student more than 2,500 years ago. That disciple settled on the mountain and helped spread his master’s ideas.

“It did not develop into a collective religious faith until after the Qin and Han dynasties,” said Shu Chenghai, director of social education at Wudang Museum.

Wudang lay between present-day Xi’an and Luoyang, two major political centers in ancient China. That made it easier for practitioners to seek seclusion while remaining within reach of major population centers.

“The Taoist tradition was therefore never entirely about withdrawing from the world,” Shu said.

Wudang’s importance as a Taoist religious center came later. During the Tang era, prayers for rain at the mountain were believed to have been answered. Its standing continued to grow under subsequent rulers, reaching its height under Ming emperors.

Taoist philosophy shapes Chinese martial arts

Guo Xinyi is a Chinese student who began training at Yuan’s academy five years ago. She knew of his decades-long commitment to preserving and passing down traditional Taoist martial arts. That made her feel she could trust him.

Within Chinese martial arts, teachers like Yuan are known as “Shifu.” The closest English translation is “master.” But the Chinese term includes the character for “father.” Guo, therefore, thinks of Yuan not merely as a mentor, but as a father figure.

When she first came to his academy, she struggled with conflict with her parents. Her tai chi lessons, though, taught her to approach confrontation calmly.

“I invited Master Yuan to have tea and talk with us,” Guo said. “During that conversation, the conflict somehow seemed to dissolve almost invisibly.”

Yuan eased her father’s anxiety, tension and excessive concern for her, she said, adding that the conversation resembled a tai chi lesson.

“When we encounter conflict, our physical instinct is to resist or attack, to move forward and meet what is coming at us,” Guo said. “But tai chi does something different. First, you release tension. Then you sink. Only afterwards do you rise.”

Masters adapt training for today’s students

The number of students from China and abroad studying at Yuan’s academy has increased in recent years.

“In the past, most learners were middle-aged or elderly, but the student population has gradually become younger,” he said.

Among that younger generation is Jake Pinnick, an American practitioner who arrived at age 20 and, 16 years later, calls Wudang home.

Pinnick grew up in the U.S. watching kung fu movies and playing sports that relied on competition. What he found in China forever changed his life.

“I came here for martial arts, but I stayed because of this philosophy,” said Pinnick, who also became a martial arts master and recently opened his own academy in Wudang.

Yuan said teaching methods have evolved to adapt to younger generations.

Physical training is less demanding and corporal punishment has been eliminated. New ways of motivating students have been introduced instead. Among them is the chanting of slogans aimed at building physical and inner strength.

“Faith in your heart, light in your eyes, and a smile on your face,” is one his students' daily chants.

Routines at his academy vary depending on the program, but training can begin as early as 6 a.m. After breakfast, students practice fundamentals before splitting into groups for specific martial arts training. Their schedules also include theory classes and meditation.

Yuan believes learning in Wudang means immersing oneself in the Taoist culture that has shaped its martial arts tradition. That environment, he said, can help students cultivate harmony with nature, with others and within themselves.

“Consider how deeply this nourishes the human heart, mind and spirit,” he added. “If practicing martial arts can nourish you to such an extent, what more could you ask for?”

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AP video journalist Wu Jia contributed to this report.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Since the school bus camera program came back online in May, more than 27,000 citations have been issued to drivers who failed to stop.

The buses are equipped with AI cameras that capture video from multiple angles. Each bus has nine cameras.

Local 10 obtained video showing drivers passing buses after the amber warning lights come on and the red lights begin flashing. In one video, children are seen in a crosswalk as a driver passes just inches from them. In another, children are in the road as a driver continues past the bus.

The fine for failing to stop is $225.

Before a citation is mailed, the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office says human eyes review the entire video package. The agency says the program is about public safety and protecting children, not a “gotcha” campaign.

At $225 per ticket, roughly $6 million has been collected in about four months, though some violations are likely dismissed.

The program had previously been sidelined after some drivers were incorrectly billed.

The company that works with the school buses supplies the cameras and runs the program, with the revenue split between the company and the school district.

Deputies say two excuses they frequently hear from drivers are, “I didn’t know the bus had stopped” and “It wasn’t me.”

But with nine cameras on each bus, officials are working toward one goal: zero violations.

The White Sox used a big first inning and a three-run homer from Chase Meidroth to propel them to a 7-3 win over the Houston Astros on Wednesday to sweep their AL Wild Card Series.

“I’m proud of the guys and certainly happy for them as they’re probably the only ones in this country that believed that they could be in this spot," manager Will Venable said. “And they maintained that belief in the beginning of the season and went throughout the season maintaining that, and they made it happen. So it’s awesome to get to this point.”

It's the first time Chicago has won a playoff series since beating Houston in the World Series in 2005. Under the direction of Venable, the second-year skipper, and with a letter of support from Pope Leo XIV, the White Sox advanced to face AL Central champion Cleveland in the AL Division Series beginning Saturday in Cleveland.

“It means everything for our fans,” Meidroth said. “They have been incredible all year. So the main thing was getting back to Chicago for some postseason baseball, and so we’re really blessed that we get to do that.”

The White Sox, who lost 100 games in each of the last three seasons, are the only team in major league history to follow consecutive 100-loss seasons with a playoff berth.

The AL West-winning Astros went 81-81 to become the first team to reach the postseason without a winning record. Their recent playoff woes in Houston continued Wednesday as they dropped their ninth straight home playoff game in a ninth trip to the postseason in the last 10 years.

Chicago pounced on the Astros for four runs in the first inning a day after scoring three in the first two innings of a 6-3 win. Houston ace Hunter Brown was lifted after getting just two outs and wasn’t helped by a sloppy defense which committed two first-inning errors.

He was 6-0 with a 2.39 ERA in six career starts against the White Sox before Wednesday’s debacle.

The Astros clawed their way back into it with solo home runs from Jeremy Peña, Cam Smith and Jose Altuve to trail by 1 entering the sixth inning.

AJ Blubaugh, who opened Game 1, and Peter Lambert, pitching on two days’ rest, combined to retire the next 13 batters after Brown exited. Chicago’s next baserunner came when Lambert walked Andrew Benintendi to start the sixth and then walked Tristan Peters.

Bryan Abreu came in, and Meidroth smashed his fifth pitch off the wall in left field to push the lead to 7-3. He yelled on his entire trip around the bases to the delight of a patch of White Sox fans seated near the visitor’s dugout.

“I was looking for something middle up,” Meidroth said. “He’s had my number all year, really good fastball, so I got something middle up and I was able to cash in for the team. So, yeah, that was awesome.”

Houston faced boos for a second game in a row from an unusually thin crowd. It’s a second straight playoff trip where the Astros have been swept at home in the wild card after losing both games to Detroit in 2024.

Now they’ll face an uncertain future with manager Joe Espada’s contract set to expire at season’s end after general manager Dana Brown was fired last month.

“We fought back and we set our goal to win this division and we accomplished that,” Espada said. “We wanted to play deep in October. We came short on that. But just the way our guys stayed together and were able to get this far, extremely proud of our team.”

It was a disappointing series for Houston slugger and AL MVP-favorite Yordan Alvarez, who managed only a single with two strikeouts in eight at-bats in the series.

Altuve’s shot to the seats in left field in the fourth inning got the Astros within 4-3. It was the 28th postseason homer of his career, which is second in MLB history behind Manny Ramirez (29).

“We’re all sad,” Altuve said. “We wanted to go to the World Series and win it. But today is sorrow for the final day of the season."

The Astros had a shot to take the lead before Meidroth’s homer. They loaded the bases with two outs in the fifth, but Anthony Kay retired Altuve on a fly out to end the inning.

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Authorities reopened an investigation Monday as outrage built over a woman’s lawsuit filed Sept. 16 against the Chi Phi fraternity, the university and the seven students she says assaulted her. She told police in November 2024 that she was assaulted at the fraternity house the month before, and prosecutors decided at the time not to prosecute anyone.

The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted. The woman’s lawsuit uses a pseudonym for her.

The Chi Phi chapter has been barred from campus, and its national organization said Wednesday that the Cornell chapter unanimously voted to remove the accused members from its rolls within days of the woman filing a police report. Cornell has said its investigation had led to some students being disciplined or expelled.

It's a horrifying but familiar story on many campuses, said Elizabeth Allan, a professor of higher education at the University of Maine and director of the school’s Hazing Prevention Research Lab. She said failed reforms show "how entrenched some of the behaviors are and that we need to take an approach that’s transformative.”

The university in Ithaca, New York, has rolled out reforms in response to hazing deaths, lawsuits and arrests in its Greek system.

In 2019, Cornell required Greek life chapters to hire independent event monitors and submit to random security spot checks, among other changes, after freshman Antonio Tsialas was found dead at the bottom of a gorge. His parents’ lawsuit said he and other fraternity pledges were hazed by being forced to drink dangerous amounts of alcohol.

Cornell has had fraternities — and problems — since its founding in 1865, said Adam McCready, a University of Connecticut associate professor who studies fraternities and sororities. One of the first confirmed hazing deaths happened at Cornell in the 1870s, he said.

Over time, the fraternities built what he described as “palatial mansions that dictate the social environment on campus.”

Fraternities have a long record of hazing and abuse cases

In 1997, a Cornell student alleged in a lawsuit that he suffered weeks of paddling and beatings. The following year, a half dozen Cornell students were arrested over allegations that a fraternity pledge was taken from his dorm room, blindfolded and bound with rope and duct tape.

In 2012, a fraternity was found guilty of hazing in the alcohol poisoning death of a Cornell student. After the death, Cornell University moved to eradicate risky pledging practices.

At the time, more than one quarter of Cornell students were members of fraternities and sororities. These students graduate and turn into donors, McCready said. “It can be a challenge to making change if there’s pressure not to do so,” McCready said.

In 2018, a fraternity chapter was placed on probation over a contest that members dubbed the Pig Roast in reference to the weight of the women they slept with.

Cornell again took steps to reign in fraternities, moving to ban hard liquor from chapter houses and require live-in advisers.

But in 2022, allegations of a sexual assault and students being drugged at off-campus housing affiliated with fraternities led Cornell to temporarily suspend fraternity parties. Fraternity leaders were supposed to use the time to "implement stronger health and safety plans,” the university had said.

The gang rape allegation followed two years later.

Advocates call for a stronger response

Cornell has said it is committed to implementing recommendations from a task force that launched last year on campus sexual assault. The university has also pointed to the expulsions and suspensions it implemented in the case.

But that is too little for advocates of sex crime victims.

The people the woman says gang raped her were allowed to write essays to Cornell “to mitigate their conduct,” the woman's lawsuit said. That's unacceptable, said Maha Ibrahim, a director at Equal Rights Advocates, a nonprofit that represents survivors.

“There's no schema where that’s an appropriate response to a gang rape,” Ibrahim said.

Allan said the case highlights a need to better understand what contributes to this kind of violence and misconduct, not just in groups, but communities, institutions and society.

“The lack of understanding around consent issues are broad-reaching and we have to be taking a public health approach to change behavior, change attitudes" in more sustainable ways, Allan said.

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Leah Willingham in Boston contributed to this report.

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

“Los glaciares alpinos no tienen ninguna posibilidad de sobrevivir a largo plazo en estas condiciones”, señalaron el servicio suizo de monitoreo de glaciares GLAMOS y la Academia Suiza de Ciencias en un comunicado difundido el jueves.

Los expertos indican que la tendencia ha empeorado en los últimos años: solo en los últimos cinco, el volumen de hielo en Suiza ha disminuido casi una quinta parte.

El informe da cuenta de las más recientes preocupaciones de que el calentamiento global causa estragos en Europa, el continente que se calienta más rápido en el mundo.

“El calentamiento que experimentamos ahora puede atribuirse al 100% al cambio climático antropogénico. Es así de simple”, afirmó Matthias Huss, quien dirige GLAMOS. “Sin las emisiones humanas o los combustibles fósiles, no tendríamos ningún calentamiento en este momento”.

La pérdida de volumen de hielo de este año continúa la tendencia

El retroceso récord del hielo glaciar en Suiza se produjo en 2022, cuando el calor del verano, las escasas nevadas invernales y una inusual capa de polvo rojizo arrastrado desde el Sahara oscurecieron los glaciares y provocaron que absorbieran más calor.

Huss explicó que la cobertura de nieve en invierno era importante por dos razones.

“Por un lado, protege el hielo desnudo contra el derretimiento. Cuanto más tiempo se mantiene la nieve, más tiempo se evita la pérdida de hielo antiguo”, explicó Huss en una entrevista en el Instituto Politécnico Federal ETHZ, donde es profesor de glaciología.

“Por otro lado, la nieve también es importante para generar nuevo alimento para el glaciar. Cuanta más nieve haya, mayor es el potencial de conservar parte de esa nieve a gran altitud y formar nuevo hielo”, agregó.

El gran deshielo en los legendarios Alpes europeos no es el único: expertos afirman que el calentamiento global ayudó a desestabilizar una ladera del Himalaya que colapsó en agosto y desató inundaciones catastróficas y mortales en Nepal. Los satélites han mostrado una vasta reducción de glaciares en lugares como Groenlandia y la Antártida durante el último medio siglo, aproximadamente.

La caída porcentual aumenta a medida que disminuye el volumen total de hielo

En Suiza, en términos absolutos, el volumen perdido ha sido menor que el de 2003, pero la disminución porcentual este año es mayor. Esto se debe a que el volumen total actual es aproximadamente un tercio del de hace 23 años. En aquel entonces, la pérdida relativa fue del 3,5% del volumen total de hielo en los glaciares suizos.

Este derretimiento acelerado del hielo ha tenido un impacto en Suiza: la pérdida de 2,2 billones de litros (581.000 millones de galones) de julio a septiembre equivale a cuatro veces el consumo anual de agua del país, de unos 9,1 millones de habitantes. Suiza obtiene más de la mitad de su electricidad de la energía hidroeléctrica.

Pero el impacto del derretimiento acelerado de los glaciares se extiende mucho más allá: Suiza es la torre de agua de Europa y alimenta algunos de los ríos más importantes del continente: el Danubio, el Po, el Rin y el Ródano.

Los expertos señalan que el “derretimiento extremo” que enfrentaron los glaciares de Suiza este año incluyó una disminución del espesor promedio de glaciares individuales de entre 2,5 y 4 metros (unos 8-13 pies), y una reducción de hasta 10 metros (33 pies) en la lengua de algunos glaciares.

Los equipos de expertos se han desplegado para evaluar la escorrentía y las grietas causadas por el agua que corre a través de los glaciares, en parte vertiendo tinte rojo en los arroyos para rastrear los flujos de agua.

Los glaciares Allalin, Clarident, Ródano y Aletsch —siendo Aletsch el más grande de los Alpes— fueron algunos de los que registraron el mayor derretimiento del que se tenga constancia este año.

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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 Texas Department of Public Safety said in a statement that it received “credible information about an individual planning a violent attack" for Thursday in Austin. Officials did not provide details about the alleged plot, citing an ongoing investigation.

The tip came in Tuesday evening, and SWAT officers made the arrest about 3 a.m. Wednesday at a residence in Converse, near San Antonio.

Benny Caldera Jr. was charged with making a terroristic threat against a public servant, a felony, the DPS statement said. He made bond, according to online court records in Bexar County, but DPS said later Wednesday that Caldera was in federal custody after being arrested by the FBI to face additional federal charges.

DPS did not provide further details, and the FBI's San Antonio press office did not immediately respond to an email late Wednesday seeking comment.

Messages were left seeking comment from John Bunk, an attorney listed for Caldera.

DPS notified state lawmakers about the threat and arrest early Wednesday. The Capitol remained open during regular operating hours.

Gov. Greg Abbott said DPS was assisted by the FBI in making the arrest.

"Texas will NOT tolerate threats of violence against our Capitol," the governor said in a statement on social media.

Es la primera protesta contra Fujimori en Lima, aunque en agosto han ocurrido paros regionales contra el gobierno en las regiones de Loreto y Ucayali, en especial por el alza de los precios de los combustibles.

El gobierno de Fujimori ha pedido al Congreso autorización para legislar por 120 días en más de 60 campos y aprobar medidas tributarias, laborales, penitenciarias, migratorias y económicas para promover el empleo, las pequeñas empresas, la inversión y el desarrollo productivo.

Pero los sindicatos han observado aspectos que podrían debilitar diversos derechos de los trabajadores. “Lo que este gobierno está buscando, dentro de ese paquete, es introducir medidas...para eliminar los topes a las tasas de interés bancarias, reducir los derechos de los trabajadores jóvenes y debilitar los derechos laborales”, dijo a The Associated Press Luis Solís, dirigente del sindicato de trabajadores del Ministerio de Transportes y Comunicaciones.

Entre los manifestantes había miembros del gremios textiles y de la construcción, entre otros.

Fujimori dijo el martes en la región Ica que el paquete de facultades legislativas solicitadas al Parlamento son "importantes" porque su gestión debe enfrentar el fenómeno climático El Niño —que ya se manifiesta en el norte del país con lluvias constantes— así como para luchar contra una ola delincuencial que no cesa.

La Cámara de Diputados aún no ha aprobado el pedido de facultades legislativas del gobierno.

En agosto, el gobierno de Fujimori declaró un estado de excepción por 60 días en Lima y el puerto del Callao para enfrentar al crimen. A inicios de septiembre Perú se sumó al Escudo de las Américas liderado por Estados Unidos para combatir la delincuencia transnacional.

Fujimori llegó al poder en julio tras prometer orden en un país azotado por las extorsiones y los asesinatos, principales preocupaciones en Perú, con 33 millones de habitantes. Las denuncias por extorsiones pasaron de 2.421 en 2019 a 26.734 en 2025, según datos oficiales.

Judge Dustin Howell said that the case against Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, 28, should proceed after prosecutors presented body-worn camera footage of the encounter in Austin, in which Garces Perez allegedly struck a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer with his driver's side mirror.

Garces Perez is charged with one count of assaulting, resisting and impeding a federal officer and faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. His case has sparked widespread outrage across the Texas capital city and brought renewed criticism from Democrats of President Donald Trump’s aggressive crackdown on immigration.

Garces Perez appeared in court in a wheelchair and wearing a sling on his arm

With a bullet still lodged in his back, Garces Perez appeared in court in a wheelchair. His attorneys said he still urgently needs medical care, 10 days after being shot. He also wore a sling on his arm and needed help putting on a headset to listen to a translation of the proceedings.

The defense called the charges against Garces Perez “retaliation” and argued that the camera footage was inconclusive because it didn't fully capture the moment when he allegedly tried to flee.

The hearing also included testimony from Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Rick Bazan, who signed the criminal complaint charging Garces Perez with assault. The defense argued that Bazan, whose agency is the investigative arm of ICE, could not confirm whether the ICE agent was actually hit by the car mirror since no federal investigators interviewed the agent directly. Bazan also couldn't explain why officer allegedly struck by the mirror was not wearing a body-worn camera.

Footage provided Wednesday in court shows officers pulling Garces Perez over Sept. 20 in Austin, where he was making deliveries for DoorDash.

The video showed Garces Perez giving officers his drivers license through a crack in his window and then asking in Spanish if he can park his car so that a relative could come retrieve it. The officer demanded Garces Perez get out of the car multiple times, to which he asked if he could park his own car so a family member could come retrieve it. After a back and forth, Garces Perez abruptly and rapidly drives off.

Prosecutors show video but not of the shooting itself

Prosecutors presented a video from cameras at a nearby business showing the ensuing high-speed chase through residential streets. The shooting itself was not captured on the footage shared in court.

The federal officer who shot Garces Perez wasn’t wearing a body-worn camera. The immigration officer who did have a camera was driving in a separate car and turned the camera off during the pursuit.

Garces Perez said he was struck by a law enforcement SUV and spun around before he was shot. Federal officers told investigators, however, that Garces Perez attempted to strike an officer with his car at the end of the chase before the unidentified officer fired his weapon.

The accusations against Garces Perez recall previous claims made by immigration agents after other high-profile shootings similarly accusing drivers of weaponizing their vehicles. In a handful of cases, the allegations have been undermined or walked back after the release of body-worn camera footage, drawing renewed scrutiny about the DHS’s reliance on vehicular stops to execute arrests.

The man's lawyer accuses ICE of denying him medical treatment

Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, one of Garces Perez's immigration attorneys, accused ICE of denying him medical treatment for his bullet wound.

“ICE’s conduct has been so egregious, that physicians, nurses, medical ethicists and health advocates have come together to demand his release,” she said outside court after the hearing.

Garces Perez entered the U.S. in 2024 using CBP One, a program begun under President Joe Biden that allowed migrants to schdule appointments with U.S. authorities to be considered for asylum. President Donald Trump ended the program on his first day back in office.

Garces Perez was an asylum seeker and had a valid work permit, according to his lawyer. She said a judge later issued a deportation order after Garces Perez missed an immigration court hearing because the notice had been sent to a former address.

Judge Howell said he denied Garces Perez bond on the basis that he could be a flight risk to Venezuela, where he has a child.

His attorneys have filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent his removal from the U.S.

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Riddle reported from Los Angeles.

“Alpine glaciers have no chance of surviving in the long term under such conditions,” the GLAMOS Swiss glacier monitoring service and Swiss Academy of Sciences said in a statement released Thursday.

The trend has worsened in recent years: Over the past five years alone, the volume of ice in Switzerland has declined by nearly a fifth, the experts say.

The report testifies to the latest concerns that global warming is wreaking havoc on Europe, the world’s fastest-warming continent.

“The warming that we are experiencing now can be attributed 100% to anthropogenic climate change. It’s as simple as that,” said Matthias Huss, who heads GLAMOS. “Without human emissions or fossil fuels we wouldn’t have any warming at the moment.”

This year’s ice volume loss continues trend

The record retreat of glacier ice in Switzerland came in 2022, when summer heat, low winter snowfall and an unusual smattering of reddish dust blown in from the Sahara darkened the glaciers and caused them to absorb more heat.

Huss said the snow cover in winter was important for two reasons.

“On the one hand, it protects the bare ice from melting. The longer you have snow, the longer you avoid the loss of old ice,” said Huss in an interview at the Federal Polytechnic Institute ETHZ, where he is a glaciology professor.

“On the other hand, the snow is important also for generating new food for the glacier. The more snow you have, the higher the potential to keep some of the snow at high elevation and to form new ice,” Huss added.

The great thaw in Europe’s legendary Alps is not alone: Experts say global warming helped to destabilize a Himalayan slope that collapsed in August and unleashed catastrophic and deadly flooding across Nepal. Satellites have shown vast shrinkage of glaciers in places like Greenland and Antarctica over the last half-century or so.

Percentage drop rises as overall ice volume falls

In Switzerland, in absolute terms, volume lost has been less than that in 2003, but the percentage decline this year is greater. That’s because the total volume today is roughly a third of that 23 years ago. Back then, the relative loss was 3.5% of total ice volume in Swiss glaciers.

Such accelerated ice melt has had an impact in Switzerland — the loss of 2.2 trillion liters (581 billion gallons) from July to September amounts to four times the annual consumption of water in the country of about 9.1 million people. Switzerland gets more than half of its electricity from hydropower.

But the impact of accelerated glacier melt ripples far beyond: Switzerland is the water tower of Europe, and feeds some of the continent’s most important rivers: the Danube, Po, Rhine and Rhone.

The experts say the “extreme melting” faced by Switzerland’s glaciers this year included a decline in the average thickness of individual glaciers between 2-1/2 and 4 meters (about 8-13 feet) — and a reduction of up to 10 meters (33 feet) on the tongue of some glaciers.

It is ‘almost too late’ to save Switzerland's glaciers

The expert teams have fanned out to assess runoff and crevices caused by the running water through the glaciers, in part by dumping red dye into the streams to track the water flows.

The Allalin, Clarident, Rhone and Aletsch glaciers — Aletsch being the largest in the Alps — were among the glaciers to experience their biggest melt on record this year.

“We just need to stabilize the climate by reducing CO2 emissions and this will help the glaciers,” said Huss, of GLAMOS, though he added that it is “almost too late” to save those in the Swiss Alps.

"For the ice in the polar regions like the ice sheets, there it’s not yet too late," he said. “There, we can make a difference and we need to make a difference in order to limit sea level rise, for example, a factor that is a fundamental threat to billions of people living along the coast.”

The laws ban employers from using the technology to predict a worker's emotional state by using their biometric data, require employers to send written notices to workers if AI is responsible for mass layoffs and ban employers from relying on AI to decide to fire someone.

The Democratic governor also signed an executive order to require state agencies to continue to refer to the technology as “artificial intelligence” instead of the term “ super intelligence ” President Donald Trump recently ordered U.S. diplomats to use.

“AI should expand opportunity — not come at the expense of workers and families,” Newsom said in a statement. “As this technology reshapes the workplace, California is putting people at the center.”

He sharply criticized Trump at an hourlong event with reporters Wednesday for not passing comprehensive federal AI regulations at a time when industry leaders are warning about the technology’s risks. Trump said Tuesday that top tech leaders signed a voluntary accord to “self-police” AI development.

The governor signed a law this month requiring operators of AI chatbots to perform risk assessments before rolling them out and an executive order requiring the state to consult with experts to further improve oversight over the industry.

“We have to do a lot more in the absence of federal leadership,” Newsom said, leaving the door open for the possibility of calling lawmakers back for a special session to further tackle the issue.

The news conference came on Newsom's last day to sign or veto bills before he terms out in January. He started the event by signing a law creating a tax credit program aimed at helping local news organizations — including newspapers, digital outlets and TV stations — hire and retain journalists. Newsom criticized what he called Trump's assault on a free press, pointing to the president's barring of news organizations from the White House.

Newsom also spoke about the upcoming midterms, which will decide control of Congress. He involved himself early in that fight by leading Democrats last year in a redistricting battle to improve their chances of winning more House seats. He's said repeatedly that the stakes are high if his party doesn't succeed in November.

“There will not be a free and fair election in 2028 unless we take back the House of Representatives,” he said Wednesday.

Asked if he's set a deadline for himself to decide whether he'll run for president in 2028, Newsom hedged, saying “that moment will arrive when it arrives.”

Former Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, who, like Newsom, hails from the San Francisco Bay Area, has also said she’s considering running for the job in 2028. Newsom told CNN recently that he wouldn’t run for president if she entered the race. He said the two haven't spoken since that interview aired.

Newsom weighed in on a proposal to temporarily raise taxes on billionaires that will be on the ballot in November, which he's consistently opposed. He said he respects supporters of the measure, including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who are committed to addressing income inequality in the country.

“He's spot on about the balance between the rich and the poor,” Newsom said. “On this issue, we fundamentally disagree.”

Newsom's remarks came hours before a gubernatorial debate between Democrat Xavier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton.

“You're going to ask me, ‘Are you going to watch the debate?’” he said. “No.”

The attorneys general of Alabama, Arkansas and Louisiana contend that the laws in California, Massachusetts and New York undermine their abortion bans and their states' sovereignty. Federal regulations allow prescriptions for abortion pills to be made by telehealth and filled by mail, and the three GOP states want to keep the pills out and punish out-of-state providers for sending them.

“This is the first time we've seen a state or group of states suing other states to challenge the validity of shield laws,” said Mary Ziegler, a University of California, Davis, law professor and author of seven books on abortion law and history.

The Supreme Court can hear disputes between states directly, though it rarely does. If the top court weighs in, it could short-circuit existing lawsuits.

Louisiana and anti-abortion activists have been frustrated with a lack of federal action by President Donald Trump's administration against medication abortion. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill sued the U.S. Food and Drug Administration over its rules allowing mail-order prescriptions. The Supreme Court in May preserved access to abortion medications as that case plays out.

“We need and deserve the opportunity to be able to enforce our laws against those who have chosen, despite their knowledge of the illegality, to continue to foster abortion in our state,” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said during a news conference with Murrill and Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin.

Thirteen states ban abortion in all stages of pregnancy, which the Supreme Court allowed in its 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Most Democratic-controlled states adopted abortion protections, including eight with laws intended to protect providers who prescribe abortion pills for patients in states with bans.

Louisiana and Texas have pursued criminal charges and civil claims against doctors based in New York and California. Officials in California and New York have refused to cooperate, citing their shield laws.

“Louisiana, Alabama, and Arkansas are asking the Supreme Court to let them impose their abortion bans on New York and punish our doctors for providing legal health care,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement Wednesday.

Ziegler said Alabama, Arkansas and Louisiana would have a stronger case if they had first tried to get the highest court in one of the three other states to force its officials to cooperate. She also said the lawsuit's timing is odd — six weeks before November congressional midterm elections that could prove difficult for the GOP.

“This may be an example of the political incentives not being the same for state-level Republicans versus federal Republicans,” she said. “If you're running in a contested race, calling attention to abortion is not a great idea, but if you're Louisiana attorney general, you're not really in that position.”

But Rachel Rebouche, a University of Texas law professor, said suing other states has been a potential legal strategy for GOP states since the first shield laws were enacted.

“That it’s taken this long is kind of remarkable,” she said.

Even before Roe was overturned, abortion pills were the most common means of ending pregnancies in the U.S., and telehealth makes abortion available even where it's banned. The three GOP attorneys general said hundreds of patients in their states use pills to end pregnancies each month.

Also on Wednesday, Alabama, Arkansas and Louisiana filed a lawsuit against 30 out-of-state abortion pill providers and their officers, accusing them of false advertising and other misconduct harming patients in states with abortion bans.

FDA scientists have repeatedly found the regimen safe and effective, though the agency is now reviewing its rules.

Jurors began the day listening to the end of testimony from former first lady Martine Moise, as well as from one of her daughters.

Both of them survived the 2021 ambush to their home in Port-au-Prince.

A group of armed, ex-soldiers, mostly Colombians, entered the home, shooting and killing the president and injuring the first lady.

A doctor from Jackson Memorial Hospital said Martine Moise’s elbow was shattered, and had to be fused together.

A forensic pathologist who performed the president’s autopsy testified to his findings, showing x-rays and photographs of Jovenel Moise on the autopsy table.

There were audible groans and gasps in the courtroom as photos of Jovenel Moise’s various bullet wounds were shown, including ones to his chest, and to his head.

Some in the gallery held their hands over their mouths, shook their heads, or turned away.

The doctor testified as to the president’s cause of death, saying, “The heart was shattered, basically” from the “projectile of a firearm,” adding that he believes Jovenel Moise was shot in the head only after he was already dead.

Thursday, the first day of October 2026, is likely to offer more rain. Both morning and afternoon, showers and storms could soak the region. Regarding temperatures, lows are forecast in the mid-70s, highs in the mid-80s.

The bipartisan bill, sponsored by Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio and Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, aims to prevent China’s auto industry from gaining a foothold in the U.S. market. It would ban the import, manufacture and sale of internet-connected vehicles, software and hardware linked to China or other foreign adversaries, including Russia and North Korea.

Chinese automakers are already effectively banned from selling or building vehicles in the U.S. under a policy put into place by the Biden administration, but senators are hoping to more permanently shut the door.

The summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump in Washington last week, which focused in part on trade between the world’s two largest economies, had given the legislation renewed momentum. Slotkin said nearly every senator was prepared to support it, and they had initially planned to seek passage last week without a formal roll call vote.

Senators delayed action to continue negotiations with the lone holdout, Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who argued the legislation could unfairly sweep in Mercedes-Benz. The bill would bar vehicles made by companies with more than a 15% ownership stake from Chinese entities. Mercedes-Benz has nearly 20% passive Chinese ownership.

Supporters say they will try again after the elections. But the delay is a setback for bipartisan legislation that has drawn support from automakers and labor unions as Washington grapples with the growing global reach of China’s auto industry — and concerns about potential surveillance technology.

“It is literally a driving spy machine on wheels,” Slotkin said of Chinese vehicles. “All of that data and all of that information goes back to Beijing.”

Lawmakers see threat from Chinese EVs

Lawmakers and analysts have warned of dire consequences if Chinese EVs should become available in the U.S.

“I am concerned about what can happen to the U.S. automobile industry with the Chinese electric vehicles,” said Republican Sen. Steve Daines in an interview with The Associated Press before the Trump-Xi summit. “They are remarkable, high quality at a much lower cost. But it’s not fair if you have a product that is significantly subsidized by a government to be able to come into our market."

Chinese automakers have expanded rapidly overseas, competing aggressively on price and technology and putting pressure on established manufacturers in Europe and other markets. In the first eight months of this year, China’s exports of new-energy vehicles more than doubled from the previous year, shipping out more than 3.4 million vehicles, according to China Association of Automobile Manufactures.

Chinese automakers supplied 60% of global electric car sales in 2025, while European and North American automakers were each responsible for about 15% of global sales, according to IEA, or the International Energy Agency.

Their emergence has raised concerns in Detroit that allowing them into the U.S. could expose domestic automakers to a new source of lower-cost competition.

Trump, however, has at times taken a more welcoming approach to Chinese investment in the U.S. auto industry. Speaking at the Detroit Economic Club in January, he said he was open to Chinese automakers building factories in the United States as long as they employed American workers.

“If they want to come in and build the plant and hire you and hire your friends and your neighbors, that’s great. I love that,” Trump said. “Let China come in.”

That position has put Trump at odds with an unusual coalition of lawmakers, automakers and labor unions that has pushed to keep Chinese vehicles out of the U.S. market.

In April 2026, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said “no” when he was asked if Chinese EV makers such as BYD would come and set up joint ventures in the U.S.

But in early September, before he hosted China's Xi, Trump again said he would not oppose Chinese automakers building ​cars in the United States.

The White House didn’t respond to a request by AP regarding its stance on the bill.

What the bill would do

Slotkin and Moreno have framed their legislation around two threats: protecting the U.S. auto industry from heavily subsidized Chinese competitors and preventing technology embedded in connected vehicles from collecting sensitive data on Americans.

In July, Slotkin called Chinese cars “surveillance packages on wheels,” arguing that they could collect information on American drivers and sensitive sites and transmit it to Beijing. Moreno has said China’s auto industry “was built to destroy American manufacturing, gut the middle class, and undermine our national security.”

The bill would prohibit the import, manufacture, sale, resale or introduction into interstate commerce of connected vehicles and related software and hardware associated with China, Russia, Iran or North Korea. It would effectively write into law and expand restrictions that began under the Biden administration, making it harder for a future administration to reverse them.

But some are concerned that the 15% ownership cap could hurt companies with strong roots in the United States.

“We're not going to have the president of the United States sign a bill — nor would he — that bans Mercedes-Benz from the United States of America,” said Moreno, also mentioning companies like Volvo. “We have to figure out a way to manage all of that.”

James Lewis, a distinguished fellow with the tech policy program at the Center for European Policy Analysis, said the bill could return after the midterm elections, given the threat that Chinese carmakers pose to U.S. companies.

“China can make enough cars in a single year to supply the entire global demand. You don’t need any other countries to make cars with China in the picture,” Lewis said. “This is existential for the car companies.”

“Car companies care a lot. They’re very influential,” he said. “They’re deeply concerned about this.”

Sidelined since Sept. 16 by a strained right calf, Judge went to the Yankees' Double-A ballpark in Somerset, New Jersey, for live batting practice Wednesday as he tries to work his way back from a leg injury to be available later in the postseason.

“Saturday’s a long ways away, but I’m doing everything I can, all morning, night, during the game, everything to prepare myself to be ready to go,” Judge said after Wednesday night's 9-2 win. "So I want to be in there. So we’ll see what happens.”

Judge did not join teammates along the first-base line for introductions before the Yankees' 9-0 win in Tuesday's opener of the best-of-three series.

“I think he was getting treatment,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.

Judge ran in the outfield before Tuesday night's game and on Wednesday went to Somerset to hit. He returned to the Bronx in time to watch Game 2.

A three-time AL MVP, Judge was limited to 66 games this season. The 34-year-old slugger hit .241 with 18 homers, 41 RBIs and an .871 OPS, including .174 with one homer and three RBIs in September.

Left-hander Ryan Weathers, sidelined with a left forearm flexor strain since Aug. 22, was to throw a bullpen at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday.

Boone said right-hander Clarke Schmidt won't pitch again this year. The 30-year-old relieved on Sept. 16 at Minnesota in his first big league appearance since Tommy John surgery on July 11, 2025, then was put on the injured list with right biceps inflammation.

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Hilton presented himself as a change agent, saying that years of Democratic dominance in Sacramento had diminished the state in business, education and quality of life. “We've got to try something different,” he said in the matchup on CNN.

Becerra depicted Hilton as President Donald Trump's handpicked choice for the job, and repeatedly invoked the president's name throughout the debate. The president is widely unpopular in the state outside his conservative base.

“You can hear Donald Trump” in Hilton's responses, he said at one point.

The debate played out just days before mail ballots are expected to begin arriving at homes in advance of the Nov. 3 general election. Looking to replace outgoing Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, Hilton is appealing to voters who he says are frustrated by the state's punishing cost of living, high taxes and long-running homeless crisis. Becerra is promising to bring down household costs, too, while continuing to push back against Trump’s agenda.

While both highlighted the state's challenges, they also cast it as a land of opportunity, with Hilton praising the state's “rebel spirit” and Becerra saying it has allowed countless people to achieve the American dream.

A September poll conducted by the University of California, Berkeley, Institute of Governmental Studies found that Becerra had a sizable lead over Hilton. A Republican has not won a statewide election in heavily Democratic California since 2006.

Hilton has been holding a steady string of public events to try to attract voters' attention, while Becerra has run a lower-key campaign.

Hilton thanked CNN “for bringing Xavier out of hiding,” a dig at his rival as the debate got underway.

Candidates trade barbs over experience

Becerra mocked Hilton's experience as a “talking head” for Fox News, where he was a commentator.

“You can’t expect a guy who has never been in office like this to go in there and do the right job,” Becerra said at one point.

Hilton cast Becerra as a guardian of the status quo, saying he has “no arguments and no solutions and nothing to say about how he would change anything about how California is run.”

But after an hour on stage, it appeared neither candidate landed the kind of stinging blow that would dramatically reshape the race. Many of the criticisms they traded echoed attack lines often heard on campaign stops in recent months.

Hilton has Trump's endorsement, but that could be a liability at a time when the president's popularity has been sliding while gas and grocery prices climb. Trump has had a long-strained relationship with California, where he was trounced in his three runs for the White House.

The two rivals emerged from a chaotic primary that saw former Democratic U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell exit the race — then announce he would leave Congress — following allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman twice, including when she worked for him, while billionaire Tom Steyer ran the most expensive political advertising campaign in the country in a losing effort for the Democratic nomination.

Hilton has vowed to bring down the price of gasoline to $3 a gallon, about half the current cost; cut in half residents’ utility bills, now among the nation’s highest; and eliminate state income taxes on the first $150,000 in earnings.

Becerra has been leaning into his long resume in government as he maneuvers to take charge of the state. He spent more than 35 years in state and federal office, including leadership roles in the U.S. House, as California’s attorney general, and as former President Joe Biden’s health secretary. “The governor’s office is not a place with training wheels,” he likes to say.

Hilton at times sought distance with Trump. Asked about Trump's unfounded attacks on election integrity in California, Hilton said, “I’ve got confidence in what we saw in the primary and in this process." He went on to criticize the tone Democrats use to assume the outcome in the governor's race is a foregone conclusion.

Immigration debate turns personal

Hilton revisited criticism of Becerra’s tenure as the federal health secretary, including his handling of migrant children who arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2021.

The children were processed in tents before being taken to emergency shelters run by the Department of Health and Human Services. Some of the shelters were criticized by child welfare advocates as having inadequate conditions. They would then be placed with a family member, relative or sponsor.

A New York Times investigation found that the health department failed to thoroughly vet sponsors, and many of the children went on to work exploitative jobs. It also found Becerra pushed to move children through the system faster and that the agency could not reach tens of thousands of minors after they left federal care.

Becerra responded that he was recycling “Trump talking points.”

“Trump left a system for care of these immigrant kids that had been dismantled because he doesn’t want them here,” Becerra said. “We changed all that. I am proud of the record.”

Asked whether he would assist in helping the Trump administration carry out mass deportations despite state laws that limit cooperation with federal law enforcement, Hilton noted his own background as a child of European immigrants and said his goal is “to lower the temperature on this whole question.” He pledged to protect “legal immigrant communities" and prioritizing removing “dangerous criminals.”

“You seem to welcome immigrants who look like you, but deport immigrants who look like me," Becerra responded. Hilton called that accusation “disgraceful.”

The state has spent billions on homelessness, with little in the way of results. Becerra said as governor, “We will make sure the encampments are cleared.” Hilton responded, “This absolute scandal shames our state.”

Cornerback Josh Wallace was flagged for interfering with Broncos wide receiver Pat Bryant, negating his interception and extending the drive, allowing Denver to score a touchdown with 47 seconds remaining to deal the Rams a 30-26 defeat. Replays showed Bryant had grabbed Wallace, not the other way around.

McVay had requested more information on the sequence from the league, a common practice from coaches and teams each week to better teach specific techniques and points of officiating emphasis.

“Like I’ve told you, the only thing that matters to me is how to educate our players,” McVay said Wednesday. “And it’s like I said to you guys afterwards, I wouldn’t change the way that I’m coaching Josh Wallace on how to play the cycle of that snap. Whether it was or wasn’t right, that wasn’t the point. The call was made, and that was what the call was. What I am interested in is if there’s any sort of feedback that says this is in alignment with what would correctly be officially as a DPI.”

The finding did not provide McVay any solace.

“That game’s over with,” McVay said. “We’re a 1-2 football team, and got to be able to move forward, and that’s where we’re at.”

Wide receiver Davante Adams agreed with his coach, with the 13-year veteran declining to discuss the merits of the penalty.

“Me talking about it, saying my feelings on it is not going to change it,” Adams said. “If it would, I’ll definitely tell you right now. It’s not. My words are not going to influence anything, so we’re just going to leave that one in the past.”

Nacua expected to play, Donald misses practice

Wide receiver Puka Nacua practiced on a limited basis Wednesday, and McVay believes he is on track to play against the Eagles on Sunday after missing the past two games because of a hip and groin injury.

Nacua’s likely return is all the more important because tight ends Terrance Ferguson (ankle) and Colby Parkinson (shoulder) each has his availability in question.

The Rams leaned heavily into three-tight end packages in a win against the Giants on Sept. 21 and at the start of the game against the Broncos before Ferguson and Parkinson were hurt, leading to expanded usage of reserve wide receivers Konata Mumpfield, Xavier Smith and Jordan Whittington.

Nacua has posted at least 1,400 yards receiving in two of his first three NFL seasons and led the Rams with five receptions for 74 yards in their Week 1 loss to the 49ers.

“He’s a great player, both with the football and also without it,” quarterback Matthew Stafford said. “He brings great play energy to our team. You know he loves the game of football. His passion rubs off on everybody in the huddle, so obviously if we get the chance to get him back, we’re excited to have him back in our huddle.”

Defensive lineman Aaron Donald did not practice because of a sore back, McVay said. It is unclear if the ailment could keep him from facing Philadelphia.

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Aura Jean Rosello, the lead crime scene detective in the investigation, walked jurors through photographs and evidence collected after Gladys Machado, 29, and her daughters, 6-year-old Julia Padrino and 3-year-old Daniella Padrino, were found dead in a master bedroom closet on Nov. 13, 2012.

Rosello described documenting injuries on Machado’s body, including injuries to her foot and arm.

Jurors also saw blood stains on Gladys’ shirt, bra and leggings that crime scene technicians collected from the master bedroom.

During opening statements Tuesday, prosecutors said Sierra confessed to taking his clothes off with a knife.

Prosecutors also showed jurors photographs depicting the condition of the bodies after they had been left in the closet.

Prosecutors also showed jurors photographs depicting the condition of the bodies after they had been left in the closet.

When asked whether she was familiar with a particular character depicted on one of the evidence items, a bedsheet, Rosello answered, “Yes, Dora the Explorer.”

The testimony then turned to Machado’s face.

“Are you prepared to tell this jury what appears to be on her face?” a prosecutor asked.

“Ants,” Rosello replied.

Prosecutors have alleged that Alberto Sierra carved into Machado’s face with a knife so she would never be beautiful for another man.

Rosello also testified about Machado’s injuries and the restraints used on her.

“The injuries to the victim’s right hand and also the rag that was wrapped around” were among the evidence she described as jurors examined photographs showing that Machado’s arms had been tied behind her back.

“What is that on her?” a prosecutor asked.

“Alberto Sierra tattooed on her (left) shoulder blade,” said Rosello.

Sierra, 42, pleaded guilty in August to three counts of murder and three counts of kidnapping in the 2012 killings of Machado and her daughters.

Prosecutors say Sierra suffocated all three victims with yellow plastic Sedano’s shopping bags. They also allege that he sexually assaulted Machado and Julia after their deaths.

The jury is now weighing whether Sierra should receive a life sentence or the death penalty.

During opening statements Tuesday, prosecutors described the killings as “heinous, atrocious and cruel.”

The defense acknowledged the “horrific” nature of the evidence while asking jurors to consider Sierra’s background and the effects of a traumatic childhood brain injury on his personality and executive functioning.

Defense attorneys have said Sierra suffered a severe head injury in a childhood car accident that affected his cognitive functioning and personality.

The penalty phase is expected to continue with additional testimony and evidence before jurors make a recommendation on the sentence.

In a post on X Wednesday afternoon, incumbent U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody, who was appointed to the role by Gov. Ron DeSantis, said in part, “We must keep Florida out of the hands of a socialist.”

She added that she is the clear choice on Nov. 3.

“You’re going to have one side that I’m up against that wants to — and the platform says — defund the police, don’t fund our military, open up our border, noncitizen voting,” Moody said at a campaign rally. “I can go on and on.”

Moody’s challenger, State Rep. Angie Nixon, D-Jacksonville, made a stop in front of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility in Miramar early Wednesday morning.

“She can say whatever she wants to say, but (on) Nov. 3, she’ll be calling me ‘senator,’” Nixon said. “I am someone who has been working in this community for the past nearly two decades across the state of Florida, advocating to ensure people have a good, decent quality of life.”

Local 10 News spoke with Nixon about her final push and how she is essentially tied with Moody in the Senate race, according to a St. Pete Polls survey.

“We’re tied in the polls, and that’s because we are out here doing the work,” Nixon said. “Ashley Moody won’t come speak with people. She won’t even debate me because she’s scared, because she’d have to speak to her record, which has been an epic failure. Ashley Moody does not have in-person town hall meetings.”

Nixon might even get a monetary push from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who endorsed her right after she won the primary last month.

“We are working things out,” Nixon said. “There are a lot of people who are frustrated all across the country that coming down and really want to support unseating Ashley Moody.”

Nixon says has accepted every single debate and she’s going to be calling for another debate in the next few weeks, asking for Moody to come and talk about her record.

A cellphone video captured the moments a BSO K-9 bit Friscot Jerome on the ankle as deputies shouted commands for him to get on his stomach.

One witness, who asked not to be identified, said Jerome approached him near northwest 12th Court and Second Avenue and asked if he wanted to buy a toolbox. The witness said he told Jerome he had no money, and that was when BSO deputies arrived.

“He was confused. He didn’t know what was going on,” the witness said.

Jerome’s aunt, Sheila Burke, said her nephew suffers from mental health issues and has not been the same since his mother suffered a massive stroke.

“He is down on the ground, you’re sicking dogs on him, you punching him,” Burke said. “I just had to stop watching it because that hurt me to my heart.”

According to an arrest form, deputies responded after a resident called 911 and allegedly found Jerome with his toolbox. The document says Jerome then threatened the resident with a box cutter.

Burke said that, regardless of what Jerome was accused of, the response was uncalled for.

BSO said in a statement that when K-9s are used to apprehend suspects, the suspect receives medical treatment, while the use of force is reported to supervisors and documented for administrative review.

Jerome faces charges including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, armed burglary and resisting arrest.

“Se le aplicará la medida administrativa de expulsión del país por atentar contra la seguridad nacional”, aseguró el conservador De la Espriella en la red social X. “Nuestra patria no puede ser escenario de injerencias extranjeras ni de actividades que amenacen su seguridad”, agregó.

Migración Colombia no se pronunció de inmediato y dijo a The Associated Press que informará sobre el caso próximamente.

El mandatario aseguró que informes de inteligencia relacionaron a Sergei Vagin, de 40 años, con presuntas actividades de espionaje, contactos con la guerrilla Ejército de Liberación Nacional y “actos vandálicos” durante las manifestaciones contra el gobierno en 2021.

El “paro nacional” de 2021 se convirtió en el ciclo de protestas antigubernamentales más grande de la historia reciente en el país. Nació por el descontento de una reforma fiscal que se impulsaba desde el gobierno y derivó en el reclamo por la desigualdad existente en el país. Decenas de personas perdieron la vida y se registraron daños en la infraestructura de las ciudades.

Vagin también enfrenta un proceso judicial en Colombia por presuntamente formar parte de una estructura dedicada a mover dinero entre Rusia y Colombia. De la Espriella indicó que se trató de un presunto fraude a plataformas de apuestas que movió alrededor de 1.600 millones de pesos (aproximadamente 478.300 dólares).

The high gas prices took center stage in Ohio on Wednesday, as lawmakers passed a 90-day state gas tax holiday with broad bipartisan support. Including Ohio, about one-third of U.S. states have implemented some form of fuel tax relief, with many taking action within the past week, according to an Associated Press review.

Some states have suspended their fuel taxes. Others have temporarily reduced taxes. And still more have targeted relief only to farmers, loggers and others who use a special type of diesel fuel.

The average price of regular gasoline stood at $4.43 a gallon on Wednesday, up roughly 50% since the war with Iran began, according to the AAA motor club. The average price of diesel was $6.41 a gallon — just a few cents shy of a record high set last week.

Here's what to know about states’ actions on fuel taxes:

Ohio governor's race at center of fuel tax action

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine's office said he plans to sign legislation that will suspend the 38.5-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax and 47-cent-per-gallon diesel tax through the remainder of this year. The plan taps $725 million from the state's general fund to pay for roads and bridges typically funded by fuel taxes.

Republican legislative leaders scrambled to recall lawmakers to the Statehouse after Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton called for a gas tax holiday last week and rival Republican Vivek Ramaswamy announced a plan to do the same a few hours later. The two are locked in a closely fought contest to succeed DeWine, a term-limited Republican. Democrats criticized Ramaswamy for taking credit for Acton's idea, while Ramaswamy's allies said his plan had substance and Acton's consisted of “tweets.”

Ramaswamy's running mate, Rob McColley, is the Ohio Senate president. On Wednesday, McColley used a technical maneuver to quickly close debate on the measure, suggesting Democrats were preparing for nothing more than “theatrics.” Senate Democratic Leader Nickie Antonio said one proposal would have called for an end to the Iran war.

Republican state Sen. Michele Reynolds, a co-sponsor of the legislation, said it "will provide much-needed relief to Ohioans at a time when they are feeling the pressure of gas prices continuing to rise.”

In the House, Democratic state Rep. Allison Russo, a candidate for secretary of state, accused Republicans of an election-year “stunt” that will save Ohioans an average of $55 over the next three months.

Several states have already halted or reduced gas taxes

In March, Georgia became the first state to suspend its fuel taxes after the war in the Middle East sent prices spiraling. Republican Gov. Brian Kemp extended the tax break into June. More recently, he announced a 30-day resumption of the motor fuel tax holiday, which began Tuesday.

Indiana Gov. Mike Braun, a Republican, has extended a fuel tax exemption multiple times since spring, with the current version running through Oct. 5.

A six-month, 6-cent reduction in Utah's fuel tax is in effect through the end of this year. Illinois and Kentucky have more modest fuel tax breaks in effect, delaying increases that were due to take effect in July.

Some states have relaxed diesel fuel regulations

In the past week, governors in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Texas all have taken steps to provide fuel tax relief for the agricultural industry amid the harvest season.

The executive orders target dyed diesel fuel, which is exempt from state taxes but normally can be used only for off-road machinery like tractors, logging equipment and irrigation pumps. The orders temporarily waive enforcement of those rules, allowing the tax-exempt diesel fuel to be used in vehicles driven on highways.

Some governors noted that reduced costs for transporting crops could affect grocery prices.

California ends restrictions on cheaper fuel blends

The Environmental Protection Agency allowed an annual switch to cheaper, winter-blended fuels beginning Sept. 1, a couple of weeks earlier than normal. The change could save up to 15 cents a gallon, according to data from the National Association of Convenience Stores.

But California sets its own stricter environmental fuel standards. In many parts of the state, summer-blended fuel is required through Oct. 31. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom ended the summer fuel requirement Monday, citing a recent state law that requires a reevaluation of regulations when retail gas prices rise substantially.

Fuel tax changes may have a delayed effect for consumers

State actions intended to provide relief from high fuel prices don't always have the effect some consumers expect. That's partly because fuel price volatility could cause costs to rise even as tax rates fall. But that's also because taxes typically are charged at the wholesale level, not at the retail pump.

“Customers expect the day that a gas tax holiday takes effect that the price at every pump will be reduced by that amount. But it’s way more complicated than that,” said Jeff Lenard, a spokesperson for the National Association of Convenience Stores.

“The costs and the changes happen further upstream," he said. "The retailer may also have product that has already been paid for with taxes that needs to be sold before you can acquire the new fuel that is not taxed and you can lower the price.”

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Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri.