The new report accused Cuba’s communists of operating as a “vector for Iran and Russia” and China; of using spies to infiltrate the “highest reaches” of the federal government; and of growing and supporting a “wave” of left-wing terrorism.

“For more than six decades, the Cuban regime has been the leading sponsor of radical leftism and Third Worldism in the United States,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote in a statement on X. “The State Department is exposing the full history of Cuban espionage and subversion in our country.”

President Donald Trump reinstated Cuba’s status as a state sponsor of terrorism in 2021 and again in 2025, both of which resulted in reinstating sanctions.

The new report described an alliance that included access to “attack drones,” as Cuban military officials “consulted with Iranian advisors on asymmetrical drone warfare for a potential conflict” with the U.S, and links between Cuba’s intelligence agency, the Dirección General de Inteligencia, or DGI, and the “Islamist militant axis,” which includes Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

“The regime in Cuba exploits every opportunity to undermine America & any suggestion otherwise is a gross underestimation of their capability,” U.S. Rep. Carlos A. Giménez wrote on Monday about the report on X.

CUBA’S ‘SPRAWLING ECOSYSTEM’

While “overriding resentment and fundamental hatred,” Cuba influenced “a disproportionate share of America’s most famous and influential extremist movements” to “turn America against itself,” according to the report.

The report cites the late Fidel Castro’s efforts to associate with “American Black radicals,” including Huey Percy Newton, the founder of the Marxist–Leninist Black Panther Party, which embraced armed self-defense, and JoAnne Deborah Byron, better known as Assata Shakur, a member of the Black Liberation Army, a Marxist-Leninist urban guerrilla.

The report also cites Castro’s idea that “the same racist Yankee imperialism victimizing Africa, Asia, and Latin America” was targeting minorities in the U.S. and describes the Instituto Cubano de Amistad con los Pueblos, or ICAP, as a Havana-based foreign intelligence operation that is connected to more than 2,000 “solidarity groups.”

The Cuban regime’s “sprawling ecosystem” has been using left-wing activists “less as a vehicle for the interests of ordinary Cubans – who are subject to brutal repression and often unable to freely work, assemble, speak, travel, or provide for their families” but as a part of a ”one-stop shop political service,” according to the report.

“Cuba has been oppressing its people, stifling freedom,” said U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody, who met with Cuban exiles on Monday at the Bay of Pigs Museum, also known as the Brigade 2506 Museum and Library, in Miami’s Little Havana.

The Ernesto “Che” Guevara Volunteer Work Brigade, a Havana-based state agency founded in 1993, and the Canadian Network on Cuba, or CNC, a Toronto-based organization, are ICAP collaborators, according to the report.

Baptist Rev. Lucius Walker Jr., the founder of the New York-based Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization, who died in 2010, was part of the ICAP’s U.S. network and Castro’s ally, according to the report.

Other leaders Cuba used as allies, according to the report, included Robert F. Williams, who was born in North Carolina and died in 1996; Trinidadian-American Stokely Carmichael, who died in 1998; and Puerto Rican Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, who died in 2005.

Dominican-American Manolo De Los Santos, the founder of Manhattan-based nonprofit People’s Forum; Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles; and organizations Code Pink and the Democratic Socialists of America are allies of Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel against, according to the report.

After George Floyd died during his arrest in Minneapolis and protests and riots followed, Díaz-Canel, who the U.S. accused of “repressing and imprisoning” Afro-Cuban dissident artists, delivered a speech in 2020 at the United Nations criticizing police brutality in the U.S.

‘UNCONVENTIONAL’ SPYCRAFT

For espionage purposes, the Cuban government recruited and “cultivated” students at elite U.S. universities to groom them into spies to infiltrate the U.S. government, according to the report.

The report cited the cases of Victor Manuel Rocha, a former U.S. ambassador to Bolivia who admitted to acting as a secret agent for over 40 years, and Ana Montes, a former FBI analyst who admitted to passing U.S. secrets to Cuba.

The report alleged the ICAP had also infiltrated the National Lawyers Guild, an association of lawyers, law students, legal workers, and jailhouse lawyers, and NLG International, which advocated for the “Cuban Five” intelligence officers.

The report also cited The Wasp Network, which the FBI dismantled in 1998 after identifying several agents, including Juan Pablo Roque, a former Cuban MiG-23 pilot who was behind the Cuban Air Force’s fatal 1996 attack at sea of two planes from Brothers to the Rescue, a Miami-based nonprofit behind rescue flights.

The attack resulted in the recent U.S. Department of Justice’s indictment of Raúl Castro.

GUERRILLA WARFARE

The U.S. has accused Cuba of supporting Marxist-Leninist guerrillas such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC; the National Liberation Army, or ELN, in Colombia; the Ejercito Popular Revolucionario, or EPR, in Mexico; the Tupamaros in Uruguay; the Montoneros in Argentina; the Sandinistas in Nicaragua; the Ação Libertadora Nacional in Brazil; and the Maoist-aligned Shining Path in Peru.

Colombia’s outgoing president, Gustavo Petro, a former Marxist guerrilla fighter known as “Aureliano,” shows that the “fingerprints of this era of Cuban-backed terror are still imprinted on Latin American politics today,” according to the report.

Andy Gomez, the former director of the University of Miami’s Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, said on Monday that the report didn’t establish any new connections.

“It keeps some of the members of the Cuban American community pointing the finger at Cuba and asking for regime change,” Gomez said about the likely strategic purpose of the report.

Related story: Read Gomez’s latest analysis on Cuba

Ortega, 80, has been in power for three decades. First, he was in power for 11 years, from 1979 to 1990, and he reassumed the presidency in 2007.

“Forget about it! There will be no more elections here for them,” Ortega said in Spanish during a televised speech. He said this was to prevent the opposition from attempting “to seize the government, to seize power.”

The former guerrilla commander stood alongside his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, also known as his “co-president,” during a ceremony in Managua.

U.S. diplomats have condemned Ortega for repressing protesters, imprisoning candidates, persecuting Catholic clergy, and changing the constitution to weaken his opposition.

Earlier this year, human rights activists denounced the death of Brooklyn Rivera, a Nicaraguan lawmaker of the Indigenous Miskito people who was imprisoned in 2023 after fighting the ruling Sandinistas for decades on land rights.

Rivera, a political prisoner, founded Yatama, a political party that aimed to represent the rights of Afro-Nicaraguans from the Miskito, Mayangna, Rama, and Creole communities.

Related social media post

Costa Rica reafirma su compromiso con la celebración de elecciones libres en Nicaragua.

📎Más detalles: https://t.co/ElcHsxxPRZ pic.twitter.com/LzuA7RU3Rp

— Cancillería Costa Rica 🇨🇷 (@CRcancilleria) July 20, 2026

The panel that sets the party's voting order could make that determination as early as Friday when it meets in Washington, two people with knowledge of the party's process but not authorized to discuss it publicly told The Associated Press on Monday.

The Rules and Bylaws Committee has been holding monthly meetings as it considers the order in which states will vote during the 2028 primaries. The panel has heard presentations from a dozen states hoping to kick off the party's primaries and caucuses, including Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.

The calendar isn't considered set until it's approved by the full DNC, which is scheduled to meet in August. The DNC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Democrats upended their process for setting their calendar after Iowa's 2020 Democratic caucus debacle, which led to days of uncertainty over who had won. The party since then has favored more diverse states.

For the 2024 cycle, President Joe Biden led a DNC effort to have South Carolina — which for years has held the party's first Southern contest — go first overall in the party’s primaries. He cited the state’s more racially diverse population compared to the traditional first-in-the-nation states of Iowa and New Hampshire, which are overwhelmingly white.

Four years earlier, Rep. Jim Clyburn, South Carolina's lone congressional Democrat and for a time the top Black Democratic lawmaker on Capitol Hill, helped Biden revive his flagging primary campaign and win a resounding victory in the state. He then went on to secure the party's presidential nomination.

South Carolina's Democratic leaders have pushed for the state to lead off again, lobbying for support and getting buy-in from Democratic Party chairs in five Southern states. In May, they pressed for South Carolina to reprise its role as the party’s first-in-the-nation contest holder, arguing that the state best represents the initial playing field for presidential candidates to build the coalitions needed to win.

A quarter of the state's population is Black and about 9% is Hispanic, according to the Census Bureau.

___

Cappelletti reported from Washington. Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP

Justice Department officials announced the new review Monday, saying Harvard’s foreign funding disclosures “raised concerns” about possible discrimination against U.S. students. The agency did not specify which scholarship programs are being targeted and emphasized it “has not reached any conclusions.”

The investigation is aimed at Harvard’s “China-based financial aid programs,” the Justice Department said. The agency said Chinese donors have given money to Harvard to support financial aid programs limited to students from certain countries. That restriction could amount to illegal discrimination based on country of origin, the department said.

“Schools cannot take federal dollars and then turn around and accept money from foreign sources to give financial aid that deliberately excludes American citizens — doing so is illegal, and we will stop it wherever we find it,” said Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the department’s Civil Rights Division.

Harvard said it was reviewing the Justice Department notice.

“Harvard follows the law for required reporting of donations and, consistent with our legal obligations under Title VI, does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, or national origin in allocating financial aid," the university said in a written statement.

In a statement, Liu Chang, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, said China-U.S. education cooperation is mutually beneficial. “China maintains that normal education and academic exchange should not be disrupted for political purposes,” Liu said.

Like many U.S. universities, Harvard accepts foreign funding through direct donations or contracts. The Trump administration has pushed for greater transparency around outside money, warning that accepting funding from foreign adversaries is a national security risk.

Federal disclosures from Harvard show it has accepted $630 million from Chinese sources over a period of decades. Overall, it has reported about $4.5 billion in foreign funding. The Justice Department cited those figures but did not single out any donors or programs being reviewed.

The investigation is a compliance review, meaning it’s initiated by the federal government rather than responding to an outside complaint.

Unlike the vast majority of U.S. universities, Harvard and a small number of other schools provide need-based scholarships to international students on the same basis as U.S. students. Grants and other aid from the federal government are reserved for American students, but Harvard “has its own job and scholarship money available to foreign students,” according to a Harvard financial aid website.

In some cases, foreign donors have given money to be used for international students.

In 2014, Pan Shiyi and Zhang Xin, a Chinese couple that co-founded the real estate company SOHO China, donated $15 million to Harvard to provide financial aid for Chinese students. Their gift drew blowback from critics in China who said it was a betrayal to give money to foreign schools instead of Chinese universities.

The Justice Department’s announcement makes the unusual legal argument that steering private funding to students of certain countries amounts to a civil rights violation for U.S. students.

“Harvard appears to be accepting these funds and, in adherence to their restrictions, providing student financial aid to foreign students, presumably Chinese, based on their national origin — to the potential detriment of students of other national origins, including American citizens,” the agency said.

The Trump administration has repeatedly opened new federal investigations against Harvard in its battle to win obedience from the nation’s oldest university.

Harvard has been a prime target in the administration’s push to end “wokeness” and fight alleged antisemitism in American higher education. A federal judge has blocked the White House from cutting billions of dollars in federal research funding from Harvard amid the feud.

Even as the legal battle continues, the government has sought new lines of attack, seeking to limit Harvard’s ability to enroll foreign students and U.S. military members, and launching investigations into the school’s admissions process.

___

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.

Heritage Auctions announced the results of its Hollywood & Entertainment Signature Auction on Monday.

The lightsaber, used onscreen by Mark Hamill in the climactic Cloud City fight where Darth Vader declares “I am your father” in the 1980 “Star Wars” sequel, included a severed hand effects rig used for when Vader sliced it off.

Heritage said the price was the highest ever fetched for a prop used in a “Star Wars” film.

A Wicked Witch of the West hat worn by actor Margaret Hamilton in 1939’s “The Wizard of Oz” brought in $550,000 at the auction, and the cocoa-colored top hat worn by Gene Wilder as the title character in 1971’s “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” went for $350,000.

Daenerys Targaryen's chest with dragon eggs inside from the first season of “Game of Thrones” brought in $312,500.

Two rugs essential to the convoluted plot of “The Big Lebowski” also sold. The one belonging to Jeff Bridges’ the Dude that “really tied the room together” and is soiled at the beginning of the 1998 film went for $350,000. And the nicer one that he takes from his wealthy namesake outdid it with a price of $375,000. The rugs went for far more than expected. Bidding began on each at $15,000.

The items' buyers and sellers were not identified.

Tuesday will feature ample sunshine and a southeast breeze (winds sustained around 10 to 15 mph). Temperatures will make a run for the lows 90s-- humidity will make it “feel like” 100°+F. Rain chance remains low.

The warning comes after the U.S., early Monday, launched its ninth night of airstrikes on Iran after announcing the death of another American service member killed in Iraq during the “controlled detonation” of a downed Iranian drone. The U.S. military also identified two soldiers who were killed in Jordan on Friday while defending against Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks. Seventeen U.S. troops have been killed since the start of the war.

The renewed exchanges of fire, now in their second week, have seen the U.S. target Iranian bridges, electrical facilities and, as of Monday, the city believed to host its underground missile bases, as the countries inch closer to a return to full-scale war. Iran on Monday retaliated with attacks on American allies Kuwait and Bahrain, home of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.

The Latest:

More US strikes start up against Iran

The U.S. military says it’s carrying out its 10th consecutive night of strikes on Iran in a push to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. Central Command said on social media that the strikes “are designed to further degrade Iranian military capabilities used to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.”

The strikes have escalated as the U.S. and Iran vie for control of the crucial energy shipping route, with Tehran retaliating by launching attacks on American allies Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain.

Two soldiers were killed in Iranian attacks on a base in Jordan on Friday that left a third service member missing. Separately, another died in Iraq on Saturday during the “controlled detonation” of a downed Iranian drone.

President Trump earlier warned on social media that “Every time Iran kills an American Soldier they will pay for that killing many times over!”

Trump signs executive order on supply chains for US military

Trump on Monday signed an executive order that would expand the Pentagon’s ability to track the raw materials and equipment used in software and gear — with the goal of strengthening domestic supply chains.

The order would require government contractors starting in 2027 to prove their need for waivers when domestic materials are not available, Peter Navarro, the president’s senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, said during a call with reporters.

The Defense Department would also require contractors to map their critical supply chains from raw materials to the products delivered to the military.

Jordan says Iran launched another missile attack

Jordan’s armed forces said Monday evening they had shot down three Iranian missiles, adding that there had been no material damage or casualties.

There was no immediate word from Iran.

Trump will visit Delaware to honor service members killed in Iran war

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump will be at Dover Air Force Base on Tuesday evening for the dignified transfer of U.S. service members.

“The President and the entire White House are praying for their families,” Leavitt said on social media Monday.

Two service members were killed Friday in Jordan while defending against Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks, the U.S. military said. A third service member was missing after the attack.

Another American service member was killed Saturday in northern Iraq in what was described as a controlled detonation of an Iranian ordnance.

Trump, in apparent pushback on Mamdani, says Netanyahu won’t be arrested in US

The president offered the assurance to Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu after New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani told the New York Times that the Israeli prime minister “belongs in The Hague” and that he was in “active conversation” with the city’s legal department about potentially arresting him if he comes to New York City for the U.N. General Assembly in September.

“Benjamin Netanyahu will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while in the United States of America,” Trump said in a social media post in which he made no direct mention of Mamdani.

During his mayoral campaign last year, Mamdani said he would order the city’s police to arrest Netanyahu under a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court over Netanyahu’s role in the war in Gaza.

Trump threatens harsh response against Iran for targeting of US troops going forward

The president took to social media on Monday to warn that “every time Iran kills an American Soldier” going forward “they will pay for that killing many times over.”

Trump offered no further details but said his directive has been relayed to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and other U.S. military leaders.

Trump’s warning came after the U.S. earlier Monday launched its ninth night of airstrikes on Iran after announcing the death of a U.S. service member, killed in Iraq during the “controlled detonation” of a downed Iranian drone. Seventeen American troops have been killed since the start of the war.

British military says a second ship was attacked off the coast of UAE

The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said Monday evening that a second ship had been attacked in the Strait of Hormuz, this one off the coast of the United Arab Emirates

Earlier, a vessel caught fire in the Strait of Hormuz after being hit by a projectile near the coastline of Oman. The crew abandoned the vessel, which was adrift and still ablaze hours later, the UKMTO said.

The route around Oman has been the one the U.S. military has encouraged ships to travel to avoid Iran’s control. The Guard later claimed it was targeting tankers in the strait.

Tehran also hit U.S.-allied countries throughout the Middle East. Bahrain sounded its missile alert sirens Monday morning, while Kuwait said its air defenses were firing at an incoming Iranian barrage.

Bahrain’s Foreign Ministry condemned Iranian drone strikes targeting the country’s air traffic systems, saying they endanger travel for civilians.

Ontario’s premier says he’s frustrated with Trump’s wildfire comments

Ontario Premier Doug Ford told a news conference Monday he is frustrated with Trump’s threats to place tariffs on Canada over wildfire smoke.

Ford said Ontario has contributed to fighting fires in the U.S. and offered assistance when Georgia was struck with a hurricane in 2024.

“Rather than criticize and threaten Canada, your closest friend, maybe one day you’re going to need our help,” Ford said. “I get frustrated just listening (to) that bunch of rubbish.”

Ford noted one of the largest fires started in Minnesota.

“Maybe President Trump would offer his closest allies and friends some support rather than sit there and threaten tariffs.”

Nearly 200 wildfires are currently burning across Northern Ontario, with 57 out of control.

Trump talked about wildfires with Carney at World Cup

Trump said he told Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney he needs to do more to stop wildfires when they talked during Sunday’s FIFA World Cup final in New Jersey.

“I told them you got to stop these fires from coming in and poisoning our air. Our air has been poisoned,” Trump told reporters on Sunday when he returned from the game.

“If we can help them, we’ll help them. But maybe they should pay us some damages or something, or we should do some tariffs.”

Trump last week accused Canada of neglecting forest management. It is unclear under what authority Trump would rely on to impose new tariffs on Canada.

Sen. Jon Ossoff fuels reelection campaign by accusing Trump of corruption

The Democrat from Georgia is making full-throated broadsides against Trump as he runs for reelection, calling the president a “national disgrace” leading a “Mar-a-Lago mafia” and “the most corrupt administration of all time.”

The 39-year-old senator’s approach is being noticed across the Democratic spectrum, from activists hungry for the right message in the 2026 midterms to those pining for viable presidential candidates.

And now he has a 20-1 fundraising advantage against Rep. Mike Collins, who won a Republican primary runoff after Trump’s last-minute endorsement. Collins argues that Ossoff is “weak” and “woke,” just another “out-of-touch, far-left liberal.”

“The senator is definitely having a moment,” Democratic strategist Lis Smith said, adding that tying Trump’s personal financial gain to his performance on the economy is a strategy “more Democrats should adopt.”

Justice Department activates untested ‘alien terrorist’ deportation court

The Justice Department has filed a first-ever petition to a secretive and dormant court created 30 years ago to weigh government requests to deport so-called “alien terrorists” from the United States.

The Alien Terrorist Removal Court was established in 1996 but had never received a petition until the Justice Department filed an application last week seeking the removal of an individual whose name is withheld from the single-page document posted on the court’s website.

A written response from the chief judge of the five-member court — all appointed by Chief Justice John Roberts — indicates that a hearing was held and that the Justice Department was directed to provide more information on Wednesday.

The chief judge of wrote that “the Government could benefit from the opportunity for more thoughtful consideration.”

Trump urges review of climate change report used by judges

Trump complained that a report on climate change National Academy of Sciences included “discredited” information that created “huge losses” across the country. The report is used by the Federal Judicial Center as a resource to assist judges in considering scientific evidence.

Trump ordered “federal suspension and debarment officials” to review the research organization’s conduct, adding that taxpayers should not be funding ″climate fraud” and judges should not rely on the report.

It was not clear what officials Trump was referring to and what, exactly, he wants them to investigate.

Earlier this year, the judicial center withdrew a chapter on climate change from the newest reference manual on scientific evidence after Republican state attorneys general complained it was biased against fossil fuel companies.

The Vances are doing their part to reverse declining birth rates

Vice President JD Vance and his wife, second lady Usha Vance, are celebrating the birth of their fourth child.

Born Sunday, Alec Neel Vance joins older siblings Ewan, 9; Vivek, 6; and Mirabel, 4. The Vances said Usha and the baby are happy and healthy. They also thanked the doctors and staff at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and the White House medical team.

The Republican vice president has passionately advocated for Americans to have more children. He repeatedly expressed alarm about declining birth rates as he launched his political career in 2021, and told the 2025 March for Life anti-abortion rally, “I want more babies in the United States of America.”

The story behind the Freedom Fuel Trump loves to promote

Trump and his White House have enthusiastically promoted the Freedom Fuel Network, a chain of star-spangled convenience stores selling gas at $3.47 per gallon to honor the 47th president.

Untangling exactly who is behind the Philadelphia-area venture has proven difficult. Records indicate the chain was launched last month by a collection of businessmen including an NFL kicking coach, a GOP fundraiser and a New Jersey entrepreneur who was ordered along with his brother to pay civil damages for unlawfully taking more than 200,000 gallons of fuel.

None of them want to talk about it. How the stations got Trump’s attention remains a mystery. Experts say they’re likely selling the gas for a loss.

What is clear: Trump has loved the idea of cheaper gas with average costs per gallon rising above $4 again as the war with Iran continues.

▶ Read more

Olympian accused of damaging Reflecting Pool gets a trial date

David Hearn, 67, has pleaded not guilty to deliberately damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool amid a troubled multimillion-dollar renovation project championed by Trump.

D.C. Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman set the date for Sept. 28 during a Monday hearing, Hearn’s second since a grand jury indicted him on a single felony count of property destruction.

Trump has claimed without providing evidence that damage to the pool’s lining was caused by vandals.

David Hearn, 67, a canoeist who competed in three Summer Olympics, told The Associated Press that he reached into the water to see what the peeling new coating felt like — “very rubbery” — and let go of it when a park worker told him to. At least three others have been charged in the same court with misdemeanors for allegedly removing pieces of the paint.

Tate brothers to appear in Miami court. UK wants them extradited

Influencer brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate are scheduled to appear before a federal magistrate in Miami on Monday after they were arrested to face rape and sex trafficking charges in the United Kingdom.

Their attorney Joseph McBride said the charges are “filth and slander” and that he’s confident the extradition request would be denied.

He also said he believed the arrests were “greenlighted by a low-level functionary” at the Justice Department, without input from leadership. But the Justice Department told The Associated Press that the arrests were approved by leadership of its Criminal Division.

The Tates’ social media empire promoting wealth, male dominance and misogyny has made them among the world’s most polarizing internet personalities.

▶ Read more

Why Yemen seeks to close Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea access

There were few details, but the deputy head of the Houthi media office, Nasruddin Amer, said on X that the Bab al-Mandeb strait will be closed to Saudi vessels in response to what he called Saudi Arabia’s “unjust blockade on Yemenis for over 10 years.”

The Houthis are key to Iran’s regional influence and they have a large stockpile of drones, but several Houthi members previously told the AP that the group’s weapons stockpile is running low after its attacks during the Israel-Hamas war. The Iran war has further impeded the flow of weapons, said the officials, who at the time spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk to the media.

Gulf nations warn of incoming Iranian fire

Bahrain sounded its missile alert sirens Monday afternoon to warn of a possible Iranian fire, while Kuwait said its air defenses were responding to incoming Iranian missiles and drones. No damage was immediately reported in either country.

Senators want answers on ICE policies

Dozens of Democratic senators and Maine’s Independent Sen. Angus King want more details on Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s vetting practices and vehicle pursuit policies following more deaths in ICE shootings.

In a letter spearheaded by King and sent to the Department of Homeland Security, the senators listed new measures to increase accountability at the agency tasked with carrying out immigration enforcement.

They said ICE should immediately start wearing uniforms or vests that clearly identify them as “ICE” instead of the more generic “POLICE” or “POLICE ICE.”

The senators also want to know whether ICE considers records of domestic violence or abuse when vetting new recruits. In Maine, the AP reported that the ICE officer who opened fire and killed a man from Colombia had a history of violent behavior detailed in family court records.

As student loan defaults surge, Trump is making borrowers pay more

Defaults are reaching record levels as borrowers struggle to pay.

The numbers have spiked since payments came due again following a lengthy pause intended to provide relief during the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, around 9.5 million people — 1 in 5 federal student loan borrowers — are in default, meaning their wages or Social Security payments could be garnished. The Trump administration has held off on such involuntary collections for now.

And still another wave of defaults could be coming. The Trump administration eliminated the most generous income-driven repayment plan, Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, as part of its overhaul of the federal student loan system. Millions who had been enrolled in SAVE now must pay more each month.

▶ Read more

Yemen’s Houthis announce a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia

A Houthi military spokesperson described the embargo on Monday, effective immediately, as an “eye for an eye” response.

Attacks by the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen last week damaged Sanaa International Airport and Abha airport in Saudi Arabia, threatening a truce that began in 2022.

Imposing an embargo could put new pressure on Saudi Arabia, which is sending oil through pipes to the Red Sea as a way of avoiding the chokehold in the Strait of Hormuz.

Houthis attacked more than 100 ships over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. It’s unclear whether the Houthis will keep up that level of attack now against Saudi Arabia.

Global rates of road injuries and deaths each fell more than 30% between 1990 and 2023, according to the study published in Lancet Public Health, which noted the progress varied from country to country.

Pedestrian and vehicle occupant deaths rose over that time in six countries — including the United States. However, more recent data shows road deaths fell in the U.S. in 2024 and 2025.

The World Health Organization put out its own numbers Monday, finding that road traffic deaths declined by 21% between 2011 and 2025. However, traffic crashes still claimed more than 1.1 million lives last year, and they remain the leading cause of death among children and youth aged 5 to 29 years, the WHO said.

Road deaths involve fatal injuries that happen to pedestrians, cyclists and people riding in cars, trucks and other vehicles. Complete data is lacking in some countries, so the researchers behind the new report made estimates based on what data is available.

The researchers, from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, found that road injury rates are higher in high-income countries, but 90% of road deaths occur in low-income countries.

In many low-income countries, safety measures have not kept up with rapid growth in cities and use of motorized vehicles. For example, seat belt mandates are more common in high-income countries, as are car safety features such as air bags.

“Road injury outcomes are shaped not only by crashes, but by the systems designed to prevent them and protect people when they occur,” said Liane Ong, the new paper's senior author, in a statement.

However, there have been conflicting trends in the U.S., including the proliferation of taller and larger passenger vehicles, the authors wrote. U.S. officials also have said thousands of deaths each year can be attributed to “distracted driving," including drivers looking at their phones.

In the U.S., motor vehicle traffic fatalities rose in the last decade and peaked at more than 43,000 in 2021 before beginning to decline, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The agency estimated the count fell to about 36,600 last year.

Meanwhile, the Governors Highway Safety Association recently reported that U.S. drivers hit and killed 7% fewer people walking on U.S. roads in 2025 compared with the year before. It was the largest annual reduction since pedestrian deaths began falling three years ago, but it was still higher than what the numbers were before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The WHO identified road safety as an international public health priority more than two decades ago. The Lancet report's release coincides with the start of a two-day United Nations high-level meeting on improving global road safety, being held in New York City.

___

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

The Tates have been held in federal detention following their arrest on Saturday. In the coming weeks, a U.S. district judge will consider whether they meet the conditions for extradition.

An attorney for the brothers, Joseph McBride, has blasted the charges as “filth and slander,” as well as “salacious and defamatory.”

Prosecutors in Britain said the new charges relate to four new victims and were brought after authorities received evidence from Bedfordshire Police in southeastern England. The allegations, spanning 2010 to 2017, include rape, assault, trafficking and offenses relating to “indecent images of a child and extreme pornography.”

The brothers are already charged with rape, bodily harm, human trafficking and controlling prostitution for gain relating to three other alleged victims in the U.K. between 2012 and 2015.

Their lawyer said in a statement Saturday that he believed the arrests were “greenlighted by a low-level functionary” at the Justice Department without input from leadership.

But the Justice Department told The Associated Press that the arrests were approved by leadership of its Criminal Division.

McBride, outside of the Miami federal courthouse, said he plans to fight extradition on the Tates’ behalf.

“We are going to fight them at every turn, and at every corner, because they are American citizens,” McBride said.

McBride claims the new allegations are politically-motivated.

“I’ve never seen evidence that indicates these guys are guilty of anything,” he said. “They are being punished and attacked for what they say and not for what they have done. You can love them, you can hate them, but nobody should go to jail for free speech.”

Taking a swipe at the U.K., McBride said, “We will make sure that we exhaust all remedies before they are sent over to the communist regime previously known as the free place of the United Kingdom.”

McBride, explaining his ties representing people in Jan. 6 cases, implied that he believes President Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio would be sympathetic to the case.

“I believe that Marco Rubio and the rest of the trump administration are not fans of communism, for prosecuting people for free speech, this is one of the reasons why they were elected,” he said, noting that after the Jan. 6 prosecutions, “I would just think as a matter of principle, based on the reasons why they were elected, that they would not want to see two free citizens go to a country where they are going to be thrown in jail for political reasons.”

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, “If the court finds the fugitive to be extraditable, it certifies the extradition and sends the record to the Secretary of State, who decides whether to surrender the fugitive.”

Former federal prosecutor David Weinstein said even though the charges the Tates face are not considered “political offenses” by definition, under the extradition treaty, “the executive branch of the U.S., including the president, can block the extradition request if they determine that the request was politically motivated.”

“So yes, President Trump is able to help prevent an extradition to the U.K. if he wanted to,” Weinstein said.

The new allegations are the latest in a long-running international legal saga involving the Tates that has spanned the U.S., Britain and Romania. The brothers have repeatedly denied wrongdoing.

Their social media empire promoting wealth, male dominance and misogyny has made them among the world’s most polarizing internet personalities.

The dual U.S. and British citizens moved to Romania in 2016. They were arrested there in 2022, accused of participating in schemes to lure women for sexual exploitation. They denied those allegations and the Romanian case hasn’t gone forward because of legal and procedural problems.

Last year, they were allowed to leave Romania and flew to Florida.

Ohtani had been scheduled to start against the Phillies in the finale of the three-game series in Philadelphia on Wednesday. But left knee irritation that kept him out of last week’s All-Star Game scrapped those plans.

The four-time MVP last pitched on July 3. He received a lubricant injection in his balky knee, which does not bother him while batting.

Manager Dave Roberts said the injection, bypassing the All-Star game and skipping the scheduled start is not because the issue is worsening. Rather, that it has “not gotten better.”

“All that stuff is trying to give us the best chance to be out of the woods entirely,” Roberts said before Monday’s game against Philadelphia.

Roberts indicated that Ohtani would try to throw off the mound later this week, saying it could happen on Thursday or Friday. The two-time defending World Series champion Dodgers are scheduled to visit the White House on Thursday, an off day. They begin a three-game series at the New York Mets on Friday.

Asked if Ohtani could return to the rotation sometime in the near future, possibly as early as next week, Roberts said, “I don’t know. He’s got to play catch again and then we’ll see.”

The two-time defending World Series champion Dodgers have the best record in the majors at 63-37 and an 11 1/2-game lead in the NL West.

___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

He plans to host sloth encounters in Margate, but he faces plenty of obstacles not limited to just permits and licensing.

That man, Larry Wallach, showed up to the May 6 Margate City Commission Meeting with a sloth in his arms.

Animal activists are outraged that anyone would attempt a sloth encounter after the atrocities that just took place in the transport of wild caught sloths from Peru to Orlando, which caused the death of 55 sloths.

“Commissioner Tommy Rizzano brought in a guy in with a sloth, just seemed incredibly tone-deaf considering what just happened in Orlando,” said James Wildman with Animal Rights Foundation of Florida

Added animal activist Ana Campos: “The last thing that we need is a Sloth World in Broward County. Nothing like that should ever open up here.”

Plans ended for the now defunct Sloth World after 55 sloths were killed due to improper housing in a warehouse without heat, water, humidity or electricity.

“It just blew my mind that we learned nothing from what happened in Orlando and that they are even considering it,” said animal activist Ronald Roberts.

Margate City Commissioner Joanne Simone spoke publicly against Wallach’s plan to bring his wildlife adventures business to her doorstep.

“I personally do not want this store to open up in Margate, it’s unfortunate that this is happening in our city,” Simone said.

Wallach’s proposal for his new storefront was denied at the meeting due to code related issues, but he was told he can resubmit.

PETA has filed local and state complaints while working to keep his business out of Florida.

“For years he’s disregarded city ordinances, court orders and even federal animal welfare laws in order to exploit sloths and other animals,” said Amanda Brody with PETA. “Larry Wallach has a decades long rap sheet of over 60 animal welfare violations from the (U.S. Department of Agriculture) and he has been cited by them for improperly caring for sloths.”

After first not wanting to talk with us, the Animal Advocate team was invited inside for a sit-down with Wallach.

“They want to say violations, they are absolutely inspection reports. If I had 60 violations, like bad, I wouldn’t have any animals,” he said. “50 some odd years, 60 violations, I could live with it, broken hose, water bowl.”

And then there is an undercover video of his sloth encounters store in Long Island that was filmed by Humane World for Animals showing what could have been a dangerous situation.

Wallach downplayed that too.

“She was bopping Chewbacca on the head, and I’m going to tell you right now that did not hurt him, the only way we got them apart was me grabbing him by the nape of the neck and moving him,” said Wallach.

His New York location was shut down by the courts, which may be the reason he wants to make a move to Margate.

“Brick and mortar is closed,” he said. “Because I wasn’t zoned for that at that location.”

Wallach says he plans to renew his USDA license for the South Florida move.

There is no denying Wallach is a character. He claims he loves his animals and he does not believe in the bad publicity he has been receiving, but at a time when the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is cracking down on sloth imports from the wild, and many sloth species are endangered or threatened, he claims his are merely exotic pets.

“Not one (came from the wild),” he said. “I get them from breeders.”

No evidence was provided to that end, but he did show Local 10 scrapbooks containing 50 years of his life spent with animals. It’s not a done deal that his life will continue with them here in the Sunshine State, though.

“There’s still a chance the Margate commission could vote no,” he said. “There’s a chance for everything, but I could always go to Loxahatchee, which is designated agricultural. I can do whatever the hell I want.”

Según la Oficina del Alguacil de Broward (BSO), los agentes que acudieron a la cuadra 2500 de East Atlantic Boulevard encontraron a la víctima con múltiples heridas de arma blanca. Los equipos de rescate la llevaron de urgencia al Broward Health North Hospital, donde fue declarada muerta.

Los investigadores hablaron con una testigo que dijo estar esperando en una parada de bus cuando la víctima —que no ha sido identificada públicamente— y el sospechoso, David Edward Rice, comenzaron a discutir.

La testigo les dijo a los agentes que los hombres “estaban discutiendo por crack” antes de que Rice, de 67 años, empezara a apuñalar a la víctima, que estaba desarmada.

Los agentes dijeron que la testigo explicó además que Rice intentó irse del lugar, pero primero le entregó el cuchillo a otro hombre que trató de subirse a un bus. La mujer contó que le avisó al chofer lo que había pasado para que no lo dejara abordar.

Ese segundo hombre fue detenido inicialmente por los agentes.

Poco después, las autoridades dijeron que se recibió una llamada al 911 indicando que el sospechoso del apuñalamiento estaba en un Publix cercano, ubicado en el 2500 de E. Atlantic Blvd., con una mano ensangrentada.

Los agentes acudieron al Publix y detuvieron a Rice, mientras los investigadores revisaban las cámaras de vigilancia de un estacionamiento administrado por el supermercado. Según dijeron, las imágenes mostraban a Rice caminando por el mismo trayecto donde los investigadores notaron un rastro de sangre, que iba de un extremo al otro del estacionamiento y luego cruzaba la calle hasta el Publix.

Las autoridades dijeron que, durante el interrogatorio, “Rice dio versiones inconsistentes sobre su cronología y su paradero antes del incidente y antes de su captura”, y que además “contradijo sus propias acciones captadas por las cámaras de vigilancia de Publix”.

Según el reporte, Rice afirmó que estaba en el Publix “para comprar fresas”.

Hasta la tarde del lunes, Rice permanecía recluido sin derecho a fianza en la cárcel principal de Broward, bajo cargos de asesinato premeditado en primer grado e invasión armada de una estructura o vehículo.

The crime was caught on camera around 4:45 p.m. Wednesday outside her Hollywood apartment.

In a matter of minutes, crooks pulled up in a white van with a Comcast sticker on the side and stole Isabella San Juan’s $7,000 motorcycle.

San Juan is a third year medical student.

“Everything I spent on the bike is pretty much everything I’ve saved working before medical school,” she said. “So I don’t have any way of replacing it.”

She posted about what happened on social media in hopes someone might know something.

That is when she connected with Aiden, who had his $15,000 motorcycle swiped from outside his Miami apartment building around 2:45 a.m. Saturday.

Turns out he had a tracker on his bike, which led him to a home in North Miami.

North Miami police found his motorcycle in the back of a van at the home, releasing a statement about the incident that read, in part:

“The motorcycle, which had been reported (stolen) from the city of Miami was recovered at the residence along with a white van. No arrests were made.”

“I was more so just shocked and just so like disappointed that it comes down to that,” Aiden said. “When it’s actually they think it’s their job or something, or it’s their way of making money to just steal other people’s property.”

The license plate on the van matches the one in San Juan’s surveillance video, and she is hopeful her motorcycle will be recovered too.

“I don’t think criminals care much about the feelings of people they steal things from,” she said. “I just want the bike back. They could just leave it somewhere. I’ll pick it up, no worries.”

El teniente del Departamento de Policía de Miami (MPD) Thomas Carroll, de 49 años, fue arrestado bajo un cargo de manejar bajo la influencia (DUI) e ingresado en la cárcel la madrugada del domingo, informó un portavoz de la agencia.

Los registros de la cárcel mostraban que también enfrentaba un cargo por negarse a una prueba de alcoholemia tras la suspensión de su licencia.

Carroll salió rápidamente de la cárcel bajo fianza.

Un portavoz de MPD dijo que el teniente “ha sido relevado de sus funciones a la espera del resultado” de una investigación interna.

No había más detalles disponibles sobre su arresto la noche del domingo.

Carroll acaparó titulares a finales de 2024, cuando fue arrestado en un caso de violencia doméstica.

Ese caso ya no aparece en los registros judiciales de Miami-Dade.

“Escuché un ruido fuerte y sonó como si hubiera explotado una bomba”, contó Terry. “Mi esposo me dijo: ‘Alguien acaba de chocar contra la casa’”.

Tres hombres iban dentro del auto. El video de vigilancia muestra que las bolsas de aire se activaron mientras intentaban salir. Uno de ellos agarró un bolso antes de que, según Terry, todos huyeran del lugar.

“Me sorprende mucho que hayan podido salir caminando, porque el impacto fue tan severo que la casa tembló”, dijo Terry. “Se me cayó la puerta del ático”.

El accidente ocurrió alrededor de las 3:30 a.m. El Tesla arrancó el buzón antes de chocar contra una Range Rover estacionada en la entrada de la casa y, finalmente, contra la vivienda.

“Ahora tengo que averiguar ¿quién? ¿por qué? Es frustrante”, expresó Terry.

Terry dijo que agradece que ella y su esposo estén bien, pero ahora espera que alguien pueda ayudar a atrapar a los responsables.

“Los carros en realidad lo frenaron, porque si no, si no hubiera habido nada aquí, se habría metido hasta mi habitación”, afirmó Terry.

Se pide a cualquier persona con información que llame a Broward Crime Stoppers al 954-493-8477.

Leer en español

According to Hallandale Beach police, the collision happened near Hallandale Beach Boulevard and Dixie Highway.

Police said eastbound lanes of Hallandale Beach Boulevard are experiencing traffic delays as officers investigate what led up to the incident.

Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue officials confirmed that one person was transported to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Drivers are urged to avoid the area for the time being.

“Please use caution when approaching railroad crossings. Never drive around lowered crossing gates or attempt to cross when warning lights are flashing,” HBPD posted on social media.

No other details were immediately released.

Leer en español

According to the MPD report, Lt. Thomas Carroll had rear-ended a Mercedes-Benz on U.S. 1 a few blocks south of the Dadeland Mall; a witness followed him nearly six miles before the longtime lawman crashed the Ford F-150.

Authorities said Carroll, 49, nearly sideswiped a Tesla Cybertruck during the intervening drive between Pinecrest and Coconut Grove.

Police said after crashing at the Bird Road intersection at around 6 p.m., Miami Fire Rescue crews “were forced to break the rear window to gain access” to Carroll.

Carroll came to and “was groggy and uneasy on his feet,” according to the arrest report.

Police said medics took him to HCA Florida Mercy Hospital, where he refused treatment “and waited outside with police.”

According to the report, while waiting outside, officers smelled alcohol on Carroll’s breath and he had slurred speech with “very poor balance.”

Authorities said Carroll refused to perform a field sobriety test and officers took him into custody. They said he later refused a breath test and officers took him to jail, where he quickly bonded out.

Carroll, who has been with MPD since 1999, is facing charges of DUI and refusal to submit to DUI testing.

It’s not his first time in trouble as Carroll, once an assistant chief with the department, has had a highly-publicized run-in with the law.

He was previously arrested in 2024 after allegations of domestic violence. That case no longer appears in Miami-Dade court records.

After his latest arrest, an MPD spokesperson said Sunday evening that Carroll “has been relieved of duty” pending the outcome of an internal investigation.

Leer en español

According to Coconut Creek Fire Rescue officials, the fire was reported just before 4:15 a.m. in the 900 block of Palmetto Drive.

The flames tore through the garage before spreading to the roof, leaving extensive damage behind.

Officials confirmed that a man who lives at the home was transported to a local hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation and at least seven cats were killed in the fire. A dog did make it out of the home safely, they said.

The fire has since been extinguished.

“It’s like scary -- it’s like, what the heck is going on?” one neighbor said. “I walk here every morning -- every morning. So this is unusual, very unusual.”

First responders said a family of three lives at the home and is now displaced. That family has set up a GoFundMe page to help with expenses.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Leer en español

Detectives accused Edgar Olivas of fatally shooting Walter Castañeda during a robbery shortly after 8:10 p.m. on Oct. 1, 2021, at 443 NW 12 Ave., records show.

Castañeda, 62, who was armed with a .38 revolver, was pulling down shutters after closing his Boost Mobile store when Olivas ambushed him, police reported, according to an arrest warrant.

“Let everything go,” Olivas, then 36, ordered Castañeda, a witness reported to police, according to the arrest warrant.

Olivas, of Orlando, stole Castañeda’s black bag, and Castañeda pulled out a revolver and fired at Olivas, who then returned fire and fled, according to the warrant.

Miami Fire Rescue personnel took Castañeda to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center, where a doctor later pronounced him dead, records show.

A Miami homicide detective tracked Olivas’s getaway car, a white 2022 four-door Honda Civic that was reported stolen on Oct. 3, 2021, according to police.

The owner of the Honda Civic reported renting the car on Sept. 29, 2021, to a woman who police later identified as Megan Hester-Villalobos, according to the arrest warrant.

The Honda’s GPS helped detectives to find evidence at a motel at 148 NW 167 St., near North Miami Beach, a gas station at 744 NW 12 Ave., in Little Havana, and an apartment at 2523 N. Alafaya Trail, in Orlando, according to the arrest warrant.

Orange County Sheriff’s Office deputies helped Miami homicide detectives find a video of the Honda that was published on an Instagram account that Hester-Villalobos used, according to the arrest warrant.

Miami-Dade corrections booked Olivas, 40, shortly before 8:55 a.m. on Friday at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center near Doral, according to county inmate records.

Olivas faced two charges: First-degree murder and armed robbery with a deadly weapon, according to county court records. A judge denied him bond.

Related story: A grieving family says the way police responded to a robbery in Little Havana cost their loved one his life

Leer en español

According to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, deputies responding to the 2500 block of East Atlantic Boulevard found the victim suffering from multiple stab wounds and rescue crews rushed him to Broward Health North Hospital, where he was pronounced deceased.

Investigators spoke to a witness who said she was waiting at a bus stop when the victim ― who has not been publicly identified ― and suspect David Edward Rice got into an argument.

The witness told deputies the men “were arguing over crack” before Rice, 67, began to stab the unarmed victim.

Deputies said the witness further explained that Rice attempted to leave the scene, but first he gave the knife to another man who tried to board a bus, but the witness said she told the bus driver what happened so the man wouldn’t be allowed to board.

The second man was initially detained by deputies.

Soon after, authorities said a 911 call was received stating that the suspect in the stabbing was at a nearby Publix, located at 2500 E. Atlantic Blvd., with a bloody hand.

Deputies responded to the Publix and detained Rice, while investigators viewed surveillance footage of a parking garage managed by Publix that they said showed Rice walking along the same path that investigators noticed a trail of blood, leading from one end of the garage to the other, then across the street into the Publix.

Authorities said that during questioning, “Rice provided inconsistencies on his timeline and whereabouts leading up to the incident and leading up to his apprehension” while he also “contradicted his own actions which were captured on Publix surveillance cameras.”

According to the report, he claimed he was at the Publix “to buy strawberries.”

As of Monday afternoon, Rice was being held at the Broward Main Jail on charges of first-degree premeditated murder and armed trespassing of a structure of conveyance on no bond.

Leer en español

Police suspect that Justin Ramirez, 24, of Sunny Isles Beach, opened fire from a moving Audi SUV, shooting into a green rented BMW near Northwest 22nd Avenue and 36th Street at around 8:10 p.m. on July 5. A 2-year-old boy was in the BMW but was unharmed, according to police.

Authorities said the victims, who sought treatment at Jackson Memorial Hospital, had been traveling from Broward County toward Brickell. An arrest report from the Miami Police Department does not provide an alleged motive for the shooting.

According to police, detectives viewed video footage of the shooting and were able to identify the Audi Q8. Police said it was registered to someone else, but they were able to tie it to Ramirez after he got a traffic ticket in Lauderhill while driving the vehicle.

Additionally, they said license plate reader data showed the Audi near Bayfront Park on July 1, the same day Ramirez posted photos on social media of himself attending FIFA Fan Fest ― and a photo of himself in the Audi “holding a bottle of Sprite with purple liquid consistent with promethazine codeine syrup,” a concoction often known by the street name “purple drank.”

The report states that detectives recovered multiple latent fingerprints from the vehicle matching Ramirez after executing a search warrant on July 9.

Police said they later got a warrant for cellphone data that placed Ramirez at the crime scene.

They took him into custody just after 12:45 p.m. Friday in a North Miami Beach neighborhood.

Ramirez, who’s previously spent time in state prison for armed robbery, now faces several charges: most notably, four counts of attempted murder.

Records show he was released from jail after posting a $90,000 bond.

Leer en español

According to police, the department was called at about 8:15 a.m. about a body being found along the 2600 block of West Commercial Boulevard.

Detectives said they discovered the man, identified as Alejandro Dario, 20, had been killed in a hit-and-run crash and said the vehicle involved in the crash has since been recovered, although the driver remains at large.

Sky 10 was above the scene shortly before 10:30 a.m. as a damaged e-bike was in the grass near the roadway.

Dario’s body was spotted a short distance away.

Police said FLPD’s Traffic Homicide Unit is investigating.

Anyone with information is asked to call the FLPD or Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.

Leer en español

Michael Mobile, better known as Mobile Mike, shared the video showing “The Determination” motor superyacht along the New River in the Riverwalk neighborhood.

“A yacht was being towed down the river at an incredibly high speed,” Mobile wrote, according to a post on X. “Right away, I knew something didn’t seem right, so I pulled out my camera.”

Mobile reported he witnessed the crash, which damaged the dock and the roof of a two-story building near Southeast First Avenue and Riverwalk North, and he saw police officers and fire rescue personnel responding.

The crash damaged a stormwater pump station, according to city officials.

Mobile’s cellphone video shows a small boat marked as owned by Steel Towing and “The Determination,” a 112-foot Westport motor yacht, marked as based in Sarasota, Fla.

City crews closed the adjacent sidewalk, placed barriers around the property damage, and a structural engineer was set to assess the building and the seawall, according to city officials.

City employees notified the Fort Lauderdale Police Department’s marine unit and the U.S. Coast Guard, according to city officials. A representative for the towing company couldn’t be reached for comment.

Location

Related social media

🚨 Another Crazy Day in Paradise… 🇯🇲#MobileMike I had just gotten back from a trip and was out for a walk when something caught my attention. A yacht was being towed down the river at an incredibly high speed. Right away, I knew something didn’t seem right, so I pulled out my… pic.twitter.com/JOMtgu9dth

— Mobile Mike (@MOBILEMIKE_) July 20, 2026

Leer en español

Police officers reported finding the woman in her 50s dead outside a house at the 21000 block of SW 176th Avenue.

The investigation remained active on Monday afternoon, according to police.

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

Local 10 News Assignment Editor Mariana Ortiz contributed to this report.

Según la policía, el departamento recibió una llamada alrededor de las 8:15 a.m. sobre un cuerpo hallado en la cuadra 2600 de West Commercial Boulevard.

Los detectives creen que el hombre podría haber muerto en un atropello y fuga.

Sky 10 sobrevoló el lugar poco antes de las 10:30 a.m., donde se veía una bicicleta eléctrica dañada sobre la hierba, cerca de la vía.

La policía dijo que la Unidad de Homicidios de Tránsito del Departamento de Policía de Fort Lauderdale (FLPD) estaba en el lugar investigando.

Se pide a cualquier persona con información que llame a la FLPD o a Broward Crime Stoppers al 954-493-8477.

Leer en español

South Florida will have no direct impacts from the system this week, though drier air is forecast to filter in behind it midweek.

This lower storm chance will keep temperatures above normal, with heat index values approaching Heat Advisory criteria each afternoon.

As of Monday evening, Tropical Depression 2 was located about 105 miles south of Panama City.

It was moving northwest at 3 mph with maximum winds of 35 mph.

A Tropical Storm Watch has been issued for the Alabama Gulf coast from the Florida border to the Mississippi border.

Según los oficiales de Coconut Creek Fire Rescue, el incendio fue reportado poco antes de las 4:15 a.m. en la cuadra 900 de Palmetto Drive.

Las llamas arrasaron el garaje antes de extenderse al techo, dejando daños considerables a su paso.

Los oficiales confirmaron que un hombre que vive en la casa fue trasladado a un hospital local para recibir tratamiento por inhalación de humo, y que al menos siete gatos murieron en el incendio. Un perro sí logró salir a salvo de la vivienda, dijeron.

El fuego ya fue extinguido.

“Da miedo... es como, ¿qué rayos está pasando?”, dijo una vecina. “Camino por aquí todas las mañanas, todas las mañanas. Así que esto es inusual, muy inusual”.

Los equipos de emergencia dijeron que en la casa vive una familia de tres personas, que ahora quedó desplazada.

La causa del incendio está bajo investigación.

Michael Mobile, mejor conocido como Mobile Mike, compartió el video que muestra al superyate a motor "The Determination" en el New River, en el vecindario de Riverwalk.

“Un yate estaba siendo remolcado río abajo a una velocidad increíblemente alta”, escribió Mobile en una publicación en X. “De inmediato supe que algo no andaba bien, así que saqué mi cámara”.

Mobile reportó que presenció el choque, que dañó el muelle y el techo de un edificio de dos pisos cerca de Southeast First Avenue y Riverwalk North, y que vio a oficiales de policía y personal de rescate acudir al lugar.

El choque dañó una estación de bombeo de aguas pluviales, según oficiales de la ciudad.

El video del celular de Mobile muestra un bote pequeño identificado como propiedad de Steel Towing y a "The Determination“, un yate a motor Westport de 112 pies, registrado con base en Sarasota, Florida.

Las cuadrillas de la ciudad cerraron la acera adyacente y colocaron barreras alrededor de los daños, mientras que un ingeniero estructural evaluaría el edificio y el malecón, según oficiales de la ciudad.

Los empleados de la ciudad notificaron a la unidad marina del Departamento de Policía de Fort Lauderdale y a la Guardia Costera de EE.UU., de acuerdo con los oficiales. No fue posible contactar a un representante de la empresa de remolque para obtener comentarios.

Leer en español

The system remains weak and disorganized – battling environmental adversaries like wind shear and dry air that we previewed in this newsletter last week – with only sporadic and patchy thunderstorms near its nascent center.

Slow and steady pressure falls reported by an Air Force Reconnaissance Hurricane Hunter airplane investigating the depression early Monday, however, indicates at least gradual organization of the surface circulation. Only a slight tick up in estimated surface winds (from 35 mph to 40 mph) will get us to Tropical Storm Bertha, which should come by this afternoon.

In terms of its track, the forecast is fairly straightforward, with a slow plod westward this week underneath a building high-pressure ridge nosing into the northern Gulf from the central U.S.

Significant strengthening not in the cards

The forecast for soon-to-be Bertha is fraught with impediments that should stymie strengthening in the days ahead. Nearly all reliable intensity guidance keep the system from climbing much above a low-to mid-tier tropical storm, and only about 3% of the 1,000-member Google DeepMind ensemble system scenarios show Bertha reaching hurricane strength.

If you spend enough time online, you’ll find bad actors sharing outlier computer models depicting scary-looking hurricane scenarios. These rogue models typically have abysmal hurricane track records (such as the German ICON) or aren’t designed and shouldn’t be used for hurricane forecasting (such as the RRFS).

So while Tropical Storm Watches stretch across parts of the northern Gulf Coast from Florida’s Panhandle to coastal Alabama in anticipation of winds above 38 mph, for now we’re not expecting widespread damaging winds for these areas.

Heaviest rains stay offshore for now

The primary hazards will be from locally heavy rainfall and dangerous rip currents as the storm slides westward along the north-central Gulf this week.

The heaviest rainfall will depend on the exact track of future Bertha and the heaviest rain totals will remain on the south side of its track, which largely stays offshore this week. A nudge northward could bring heavier totals over land, so we’ll want to watch the trends.

For the time being, we’re not expecting a widespread flood threat, but instead, mainly localized flooding from slower-moving outer bands around the system along the north-central Gulf through Thursday. The higher risk of scattered flash flooding will come from late Tuesday through Thursday from southern Louisiana to southeastern Texas.

Simmering Gulf waters kept in check

The biggest factor favoring organization is the near-record water temperatures for the time of year in the northern Gulf. We discussed this extensively in last Wednesday’s newsletter for what was (at the time) the less likely outcome:

“It’s the westward path over the northern Gulf that would leave it over record to near-record warm waters and the scenario that would raise the specter of pure tropical development.”

That notable shift westward by the models over the weekend now keep the system lingering over those seasonably waters this week.

The good news, though, are all the limiting factors we discussed working to tap the brakes over this part of the Gulf. By Wednesday, especially, a curtain of northerly shear and land interaction should begin to gut what remains of the storm as it approaches Louisiana.

The only game in town for now

Across the remainder of the Atlantic, especially through the deep tropics, things look to stay quiet to round out July, with no additional development expected elsewhere over the next week or two.

Según la policía de Hallandale Beach, la colisión ocurrió cerca de Hallandale Beach Boulevard y Dixie Highway.

La policía dijo que los carriles en dirección este de Hallandale Beach Boulevard presentaban demoras en el tráfico mientras los oficiales investigaban qué llevó al incidente.

Los oficiales de Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue confirmaron que una persona fue trasladada a un hospital local con heridas que no ponían en riesgo su vida.

Se exhorta a los conductores a evitar la zona por el momento.

“Por favor, tenga precaución al acercarse a los cruces ferroviarios. Nunca maneje alrededor de las barreras bajadas ni intente cruzar cuando las luces de advertencia estén parpadeando”, publicó el Departamento de Policía de Hallandale Beach (HBPD) en redes sociales.

No se divulgaron más detalles de inmediato.

Los oficiales de policía reportaron haber encontrado muerta a la mujer, de unos 50 años, en el exterior de una casa en la cuadra 21000 de SW 176th Avenue.

La investigación seguía activa la tarde del lunes, según la policía.

Los detectives pidieron a cualquier persona con información sobre este u otros casos, y que desee permanecer en el anonimato, que llame a Broward County Crime Stoppers al 954-493-8477.

La editora de asignaciones de Local 10 News, Mariana Ortiz, contribuyó a este reporte.

The center was meant to take in and quarantine Americans evacuated from Congo, where an Ebola outbreak that erupted two months ago has so far killed at least 930 people, out of the 2,344 cases confirmed there.

A U.S. humanitarian organization, the Samaritan’s Purse, said over the weekend that seven of its American staff from Congo were being quarantined in “large military tents” for 21 days in Kenya, adding that none had so far shown symptoms of Ebola.

The organization did not say where in Kenya their workers were quarantined but local media have reported that military tents in Laikipia Air Base would house the U.S.-backed Ebola facility. The air base is about 185 kilometers (115 miles) north from Nairobi, Kenya's capital, near the town of Nanyuki.

Residents of Nanyuki have staged a series of protests against the facility recently, and two people have died when the protests turned violent.

Both Kenya’s Ministry of Health and the U.S. State Department did not respond to requests for comment about whether Americans were being quarantined in Kenya. The Laikipia Air Base could also not be reached for comment.

Kenya — hundreds of miles to the east of Congo and with the country of Uganda between them — has no confirmed Ebola cases but is a key U.S. ally in Africa. The United States has pledged $13.5 million toward Kenya’s Ebola preparedness efforts.

Kenyan President William Ruto has defended the planned U.S.-backed quarantine facility, describing it as part of a partnership with the U.S. He said there were also plans to establish 24 additional Ebola preparedness centers across the country, with U.S. funding.

However, a Kenyan court last month issued an order that barred the operationalization of the facility and Health Minister Aden Duale later ordered suspension of its construction.

The case was based on a petition by the Law Society of Kenya and constitutional lobby group Katiba Institute, which had argued against establishing a quarantine for Americans from Congo, saying that Kenya’s fragile health system could be overwhelmed in the event of an Ebola outbreak.

Katiba Institute’s chief Nora Mbagathi told The Associated Press the activists groups were concerned about the latest reports of Americans already being quarantined in Kenya.

“Should any Kenyan government official be involved ... they have completely betrayed the public trust and must be held personally accountable,” Mbagathi added.

In a statement to the AP, the Law Society of Kenya said on Monday that a “deliberate" violation of a court order would amount to "impunity and lawlessness.”

Samaritan’s Purse said its staff had been working on the front lines of the Ebola response in Congo, where the organization operates two treatment centers in Bunia and Nyankunde.

“They are being housed in large military tents in a fenced gravel compound, sleeping on military cots, and their food is being provided by the U.S. military,” Samaritan’s Purse President and CEO Franklin Graham said in a statement.

Graham did not respond to questions why the quarantine was up and working in Kenya despite the court order.

___

For more on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse

The move could unleash a new wave of economic chaos, with risks of higher inflation and further fraying of relations between two nations that had been closely woven together before Trump's return to the White House. The administration official previewing the action said that Canada was one of the only nations other than China that retaliated against Trump's previous tariffs and must be held accountable.

The official insisted on anonymity on a call with reporters to preview the president's actions and said that Trump signed three proclamations to launch the tariffs under Section 338 of the 1930 Trade Act. Several Democratic lawmakers last year proposed repealing the section because they said Trump could use it to destabilize the economy.

The new 50% tariffs would exclude energy products, potash, fish and critical minerals, but they would include goods that had previously been protected from import taxes by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA. That 2020 trade pact was not renewed by the U.S., triggering a new set of negotiations that could run until 2036.

The White House said in a fact sheet that the tariffs would go into effect in 30 days, meaning there is time for negotiations as Trump has not always followed through on his announced tax hikes on imports.

Canada faces the risk of a broader trade war

Still, the tariffs could escalate into a wider trade war as Canada seeks to defend its economy.

The Canadian federal government did not immediately comment on the tariff, but Ontario Premier Doug Ford saw a possible showdown ahead.

“If these tariffs proceed, Canada should respond tariff for tariff, dollar for dollar,” Ford posted on social media.

Candace Laing, CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said the Trump administration's moves were “regrettable” but the two countries need to use the 30-day window before the tariffs start "to make meaningful progress in advancing formal talks.”

Chris Swonger, CEO of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, also called for a deal: "We encourage policymakers on both sides of the border to pursue a negotiated solution that restores market access for U.S. spirits and avoids further harm to the U.S. hospitality sector.”

But the use of a Great Depression-era law to impose the tariffs broadens some of the risks, as those tariffs could be applied to other U.S. trading partners, not just Canada, and inject “massive uncertainty” into the global economy, said Scott Lincicome, vice president of general economics at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.

“We crossed the Rubicon,” Lincicome said. “The invocation of 338 is the nuclear option for Trump tariffs.”

Tariffs are also a political challenge for Trump

The new tariffs carry serious political and economic risks for Trump ahead of the November midterm elections for control of Congress. His “Liberation Day” tariffs last year in April provoked a financial market meltdown over concerns about inflation and a recession, prompting him to walk back the rates for a period of negotiation.

The Supreme Court ruled this February that Trump had lacked the legal authority to impose the tariffs by declaring an economic emergency, causing the administration to find alternative ways to raise import taxes based on a series of legal authorities.

Tariffs are taxes on imports, which companies can then pass along to consumers in the form of higher prices. The president maintains that the costs created by tariffs will cause manufacturing to relocate to the U.S., though there is little evidence of that in the economic data.

“These new taxes will raise prices on American families and likely lead to retaliation against the very industries Trump purportedly wants to protect,” said Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., who is chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

The latest import taxes could worsen Trump's weak ratings on the economy. He promised voters when running for the presidency that he would bring prices down, but the annual inflation rate has risen since he became president because the tariffs and the war in Iran are pushing up oil prices.

Trump has repeatedly targeted Canada on trade issues

The Trump administration official said the president had also requested that his aides look into additional tariffs on Canada because its wildfires hurt air quality in the U.S. He had publicly threatened to do so in social media posts.

At the World Cup final on Sunday, Trump watched the game with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who has openly challenged the U.S. president and has sought to expand Canada's trade relations with other nations. The Trump administration official said their time together at the game was not a working visit to discuss trade and tariffs.

Trump claims in the proclamations that Canada discriminates against American autos, alcohol and cheese relative to other nations, but his argument rests in large part on retaliatory actions taken by Canada after the U.S. president imposed tariffs on Canada under the pretext that it should do more to stop fentanyl smuggling.

Trump noted in his autos proclamation that Canada maintained, starting in April 2025, a 25% tariff on the imports of U.S. motor vehicles that did not qualify for preferential treatment under the USMCA.

The White House said that, regarding alcohol, all but two Canadian provinces and territories halted the purchase and retailing of American alcoholic beverages beginning last year, which was also a response to Trump's tariffs and taunts of making Canada the 51st state.

But Trump has long objected to Canada's treatment of U.S. cheese, saying in his proclamation that Canada discriminates against the U.S. compared to Europe on dairy products.

Trump and Carney have had a frosty relationship, with Carney, a former central banker, who pledged to stand up for Canada during his election campaign last year.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January, Carney called out Trump — without naming him — by saying that the “most powerful” countries are using the economy to coerce less powerful nations.

Trump responded at the time by saying: “Canada lives because of the United States."

___

Associated Press writer Jim Morris contributed from Vancouver, British Columbia.

Quinn Brown had been eyeing a massive bin of clothes at a Goodwill store outside Portland in January when he saw someone toss a Lakers jacket with Chamberlain's name on it back on the pile. Brown, who resells used clothes online, quickly grabbed it.

The jacket was auctioned by Sotheby’s, which had estimated its value between $150,000 and $250,000 before bidding closed Monday. It received a total of 48 bids, according to the auction house.

Described on Sotheby’s website as an “extraordinary piece of memorabilia," the short-sleeved yellow warmup jacket was worn by Chamberlain during the 1972 NBA finals, in which the Los Angeles Lakers beat the New York Knicks.

“I didn’t even think that finding something like this was possible,” Brown said. “I got very, very lucky.”

Chamberlain, an NBA Hall of Famer viewed as one of the all-time greats, played in the league from 1959 to 1973. He won two championship rings — one with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1967, and another with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1972. He holds the record for most points scored by a player in a single game, netting 100 points in a 1962 match.

For the past three years, Brown has been reselling clothes online after finding them in thrift stores. The most expensive item he had sold previously was a T-shirt of Sub Pop Records, the indie label that signed Nirvana in 1989 and released the band’s first album. It went for $250.

After buying the Chamberlain jacket back in January, Brown searched online to see if it was worth something. He found a picture on Google of Chamberlain wearing such a jacket and compared it to the one he had.

In examining the Lakers patch on the front, he noticed certain small stitching details that matched the photo. He also looked up the measurements of a different jersey worn by Chamberlain, a towering figure at 7 feet, 1 inch (2.2 meters) tall, and discovered that they nearly aligned.

“I really just wanted to make sure, because it was so hard to believe at the time,” he said, adding that he had only ever read about such serendipitous thrift findings.

When he posted a photo of the jacket on social media, Sotheby’s contacted him about consigning the jacket to the auction house. Brown agreed, and an armored van came to pick it up.

Sotheby’s then did its own photo verification and determined that the jacket was worn by Chamberlain during the 1972 finals, in which he was named the finals MVP.

“Photomatching a piece of game-worn clothing to a specific Finals series, for a player of this era, is genuinely exceptional,” Sotheby’s website says. “As photomatched items worn by Chamberlain become exceedingly rare, this jacket is a piece of sports history.”

It is not the first Chamberlain item from the 1972 finals to fetch a hefty sum under the hammer: A game jersey he wore during the series sold for $4.9 million at Sotheby's in 2023, the fourth most expensive NBA jersey ever sold by the auction house.

As for his thrifted find, Brown said: “That was as good as it gets.”

El canciller peruano Carlos Pareja dijo a la prensa que vendrán a Lima los presidentes de Argentina, Javier Milei; Bolivia, Rodrigo Paz; Chile, José Kast; Paraguay, Santiago Peña; Uruguay, Yamandú Orsi; Panamá, José Mulino; Honduras, Nasry Asfura y Ecuador, Daniel Noboa. También el rey de España Felipe VI.

Pareja declaró tras visitar a la presidenta electa conservadora en su oficina en Lima.

Keiko Fujimori, de 51 años, ganó los comicios en Perú en su cuarto intento. Su triunfo en el balotaje del 7 de junio ante el progresista Roberto Sánchez fue de casi 50.000 votos, gracias al decisivo apoyo que recibió de votantes del exterior. Antes fue legisladora y primera dama en el gobierno de su padre, el fallecido expresidente Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000).

Keiko Fujimori ha prometido gobernar “por cinco años”, a diferencia de su padre quien buscó permanecer en poder y fue reelegido en 1995 y en 2000. Luego abandonó Perú en 2000 tras escándalos de corrupción y huyó a Japón. Después fue extraditado desde Chile, a donde había llegado de forma sorpresiva, y luego fue condenado por corrupción y asesinato. Fue excarcelado tras un indulto presidencial en 2023 y murió en 2024.

All the way to his $75 million, five-year contract with the Chicago Blackhawks.

“I’ve said (it) so much and it’s not anything fake. Chicago’s really, you know, the only place I want to play,” Bedard said.

Bedard's new deal was announced on Saturday, a day after his 21st birthday. It provides a level of security for both Bedard and the rebuilding Blackhawks, even if it always seemed as if it was just a matter of the final numbers than any sort of question about the end result.

Some intrigue arrived when Leo Carlsson, another restricted free agent, signed a $90 million, five-year offer sheet with Philadelphia before going back to Anaheim when the Ducks decided to match the offer sheet. But Bedard stayed with his plans all along.

It was always Chicago.

“I’m very happy with the amount of money I’m making. You know, it’s a lot,” a chuckling Bedard said Monday in his first public comments since the deal was announced. “I think just with that, obviously the offer sheet is different as well. You know with a team trying to take a guy, it is going to be a different value. But for me, that didn’t change anything I was thinking.”

The final details were completed after Bedard had surgery on his left shoulder on July 8. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 draft is expected to miss the start of the season after he got hurt while skating with a group of NHL players in western Canada.

Bedard also missed 12 games last season after he hurt his right shoulder on a draw during a 3-2 loss at St. Louis on Dec. 12.

“You always do everything you can to try to prevent injury and stay healthy,” he said. “It’s a terrible part of the game but it’s something that you know I think for me to have this next little bit and go through that adversity and try to get stronger, you know, mentally in that way. That’s the way I’m trying to look at it and then come back.”

Bedard has been Chicago's most important player since he made his anticipated NHL debut in October 2023. He continued his steady improvement in his third season, setting career highs with 30 goals and 45 assists in 69 games.

But he hasn't experienced much winning since arriving in Chicago. The Blackhawks went 29-39-14 last season, an 11-point improvement on the previous season and still nowhere near playoff contention. The team has finished No. 31 in the NHL each of the past three years.

Chicago is looking for its first postseason appearance since the NHL used an expanded playoff format after the 2020 season was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Looking to get the team back in contention, general manager Kyle Davidson swung a trade for defenseman Bowen Byram on June 23. The Blackhawks also signed forward prospect Roman Kantserov in May, and then added forward Cole Smith and defenseman Ian Cole on the first day of free agency.

“I think we’ve had a great summer,” Bedard said.

But Chicago could use another top-six forward, possibly to play alongside Bedard, and, well, Patrick Kane remains on the market as a free agent. The 37-year-old Kane, who helped the Blackhawks win three Stanley Cup championships before he was traded to the New York Rangers in February 2023, is reportedly considering a return to his first NHL team.

“That would be incredible to get to play with him and learn from him,” Bedard said. “So hopefully he decides to come back. ... You talk about kind of the legacy aspect of it, but just as a team, it would make us a way better team. He’s still an amazing player.”

With the contract completed, the next big moment for Bedard could be taking over as the 36th captain in franchise history. He became an alternate captain after the team traded away its entire leadership group in March.

“If I was able to get that honor, it would be so special and something that I know I wouldn’t take for granted for a second,” Bedard said. “But we got so many guys in the room that can lead.”

___

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

The U.S. has agreed since 2020 to send more than 20 people wanted in the U.K. on various criminal charges, according to the U.K. Parliament. With possible appeals, the process could last a few years — if the accused wants to fight it.

“The government holds all the cards in an extradition proceeding because the rules of evidence allow the government to submit any evidence they wish,” said Jacques Semmelman, a New York-based lawyer and expert in the procedure.

“It is very hard for the defense to defeat an extradition,” he said.

Process starts with a treaty

The U.S. has a treaty that allows it to honor a U.K. extradition request if the alleged crimes would also be considered illegal in the U.S. The Tate brothers are accused of rape, assault, trafficking and other offenses in southeastern England, from 2010 to 2017.

“They’ve never done nothing wrong. They shouldn’t be extradited for crimes they did not commit,” defense attorney Joseph McBride said.

A federal judge will review arrest warrants, investigative documents and other information submitted by the U.S. government to show there was a “reasonable basis” to file charges against them in the U.K., according to the treaty.

The hearing would not be similar to a trial, said Semmelman of the Katten Muchin Rosenman law firm.

“A partial victory might mean a reduction in the charges to be extradited upon,” he said. “An across-the-board victory — no extradition — is very difficult to achieve.”

It's rare to reject extradition

If a judge finds that the U.K. government has met the threshold, and any appeals fail, the final decision to extradite would rest with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has wide discretion, or his successor.

“In most cases the secretary of state will sign the warrant of extradition,” Semmelman said.

Some extradition requests have failed in the U.S. In 2015, a judge said there was insufficient evidence to show that an art dealer knew that an 18th-century painting taken from a Polish museum by the Nazis during World War II was stolen property when he inherited it.

In 2020, during President Donald Trump's first administration, the government declined to turn over an American woman who fatally struck a young man while driving in eastern England. Anne Sacoolas, who was the wife of a U.S. intelligence officer, subsequently returned to the U.S. She later admitted responsibility in a U.K. court by video.

La depresión se ubicaba el lunes por la tarde a unos 165 kilómetros (105 millas) al sur de Panama City, Florida, con vientos sostenidos de 55 km/h (35 mph). Se tiene previsto que siga fortaleciéndose y se convierta en tormenta tropical en las próximas horas informó el Centro Nacional de Huracanes de Estados Unidos (NHC por sus iniciales en inglés).

El NHC, con sede en Miami, señaló que el sistema se desplazaba con dirección noroeste a unos 6 km/h (3 mph) en una trayectoria que lo llevaría cerca de o a lo largo de la costa norte del golfo de México por varios días. Se emitió un aviso de marejada ciclónica que se extiende desde la desembocadura del río Mississippi hasta los límites entre Alabama y Florida.

También se emitió un aviso tormenta tropical desde el río Ochlockonee, en Florida, hasta el sureste de Luisiana, en los límites entre los municipios de Jefferson y Plaquemines.

La oficina del Servicio Meteorológico Nacional en Nueva Orleans señaló que las condiciones de tormenta podrían presentarse desde la franja noroeste de Florida hasta Luisiana para el martes. Advirtió sobre ráfagas de viento de 60 km/h (40 mph) y mencionó un posible aviso por marejada ciclónica “potencialmente mortal” para las costas de Alabama, Mississippi y el sureste de Luisiana.

El centro de huracanes indicó que podrían registrarse marejadas de hasta 1,2 metros (cuatro pies) en partes de las costas de Luisiana y Mississippi, y advirtió que también podría se podrían registrar esta semana uno o dos tornados aislados en la región de Big Bend, en Florida.

El servicio meteorológico añadió que también podrían presentarse zonas de inundaciones repentinas a lo largo de la costa hasta el viernes, desde el oeste de Florida hasta el centro de Texas. Agregó que las precipitaciones podrían alcanzar entre 7 y 12 centímetros (3 y 5 pulgadas) a lo largo de la costa de Luisiana, con cantidades mayores previstas en algunas áreas, en particular al sur del lago Pontchartrain.

En tanto, en el océano Pacífico oriental, la tormenta tropical Fausto se fortaleció el lunes y se encontraba cerca de alcanzar categoría de huracán mar adentro, lejos de México.

Fausto registraba el lunes vientos máximos sostenidos de 110 km/h (70 mph) y se ubicaba a unos 1.205 kilómetros (745 millas) al suroeste del extremo sur de la península de Baja California, México. El centro de huracanes indicó que la tormenta se desplazaba hacia el noroeste a 17 km/h (10 mph ) y no representaba amenaza para tierra.

___

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

Trump’s use of the new red, white and navy blue aircraft has faced much scrutiny not only because it was gifted by a foreign government, but also because it appears to not be equipped with some of the same missile detection and countermeasure systems as the older jets.

But it came under deeper scrutiny this month when he left the NATO summit in Turkey on the older, baby blue Air Force One and made a previously unscheduled stop at a base in the United Kingdom. Trump then swapped back onto the new Qatari-gifted plane at Royal Air Force Mildenhall.

“The new Air Force One is perfectly safe for the President’s travels, but will receive additional upgrades and enhancements in the fall which will take approximately one month to complete,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday. “During that time, the President will fly on the old Air Force One.”

The statement from Leavitt elaborated on a comment from the president as he returned to Washington on Sunday night, when he told reporters that the new plane will be sent to be “maxed out.”

Trump claimed earlier this month that the stop in the United Kingdom was so U.S. troops at Mildenhall could look at the new plane. He denied to reporters that the jet switch was due to security concerns, although he also said that he has a threat against him “all the time” and is Iran’s “No. 1” target.

Food and Drug Administration officials on Monday said a laboratory test incorrectly identified a positive result for cyclospora on a sample of lettuce from Taylor Farms. The FDA posted the finding to its website on Saturday but then said Sunday that the result had been a false positive.

Federal and state authorities have been investigating a rise in cases of the parasite, initially linking the outbreak in five states to lettuce served at Taco Bell locations. On Saturday, Taylor Farms announced it was recalling 25 shredded lettuce and salad mix products sold under eight different brand codes. The products are used by a number of U.S. food chains and suppliers.

“FDA’s traceback investigation and the outbreak data continue to converge on shredded iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms’ locations in central Mexico,” FDA's acting food chief, Donald Prater, told reporters on Monday.

In addition to tracing the supply chain of lettuce, FDA staff have begun testing samples of produce coming across the U.S. border.

FDA officials on Monday said the false positive result came from a rapid test used to screen for traces of cyclospora. The sample that initially appeared positive for the parasite came from Taylor Farms but was not part of the company's lettuce recall. FDA officials said they felt compelled to alert the public to the finding.

But a subsequent quality control check showed the positive finding was an error. FDA officials notified Taylor Farms of that on Sunday.

The company touted the updated test results on social media and claimed “FDA apologized to us.” Agency officials said there was no official apology.

Cyclospora is a microscopic parasite that infects food that has come into contact with human feces, most commonly when produce is irrigated or washed with contaminated water. When ingested, the parasite causes intestinal illness marked by “frequent and sometimes explosive bowel movements,” according to the CDC.

In 2026, cyclospora has sickened at least 1,645 people in the U.S. and hospitalized 141, according to the FDA and CDC. The agencies are investigating five separate clusters of illnesses, including the one traced to Taylor Farms.

FDA's acting commissioner, Kyle Diamantas, said health officials have continued to see new cases associated with the latest outbreak, including some as recent as last week.

“Which means it’s imperative for us to take action to ensure that contaminated product is not making its way to the market,” Diamantas explained.

As of Friday, foot traffic was down at a number of dining chains compared with the day-of-the-week averages between Jan. 1 and July 6, according to Placer.ai, which tracks people’s movements based on cellphone usage.

Taco Bell suffered the biggest drop — an 18.9% decline — after federal health officials named the chain in its investigation of the cyclosporiasis outbreak. Foot traffic fell 14.3% at Chopt, Placer.ai said. Both Chipotle and Panera Bread had close to a 7% drop in traffic, while Cava’s drop was less — at 4.2% — according to the firm.

Food safety investigators often cannot draw a direct biological connection between recalled produce and outbreaks of foodborne illness. Some common tests used to check for food poisoning have not been geared to detect cyclospora. Technicians aren’t able to grow the parasite in labs, making it hard to draw evidence from contaminated produce.

Instead, investigators draw conclusions based on accounts of what people ate, the proximity and timing of cases and other patterns.

___

AP Business Writer Anne D'Innocenzio contributed from New York.

___

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

Goal of the tournament

Sidny Lopes Cabral stunned defending champion Argentina with a tying goal in extra time of their round of 32 match at Miami Gardens, Florida, on July 3. The Blue Sharks, who entered the tournament ranked 67th, trailed 2-1 in the 103rd minute when Cabral settled a long pass from Yannick Semedo near the left flank with his left foot. The 23-year-old, who plays in Turkey for Trabzonspor, cut past Alexis Mac Allister while playing the ball onto his right foot and from just inside the penalty area curled a shot past goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez and into the upper corner at the far post for his fourth goal in 14 international appearances. Argentina went on to win on an own goal.

Upset of the tournament

Eliminated in consecutive group stages following its fourth World Cup title in 2014, Germany clinched its group title with wins over Curaçao and Ivory Coast before losing its first-round finale against Ecuador. Paraguay was in its first World Cup since 2010, began the tournament ranked 41st and advanced as a third-place team, opening with a 4-1 loss to the U.S., beating Turkey 1-0 and playing a 0-0 draw against Australia. Julio Enciso put Paraguay ahead in the 42nd minute of the round of 32 match at Foxborough, Massachusetts, on June 29 but Kai Havertz tied the score 12 minutes later. Germany, which began the World Cup ranked No. 10, appeared to go ahead on Jonathan Tah’s header of a corner kick in the 102nd minute but a video review concluded the goal should be disallowed because of a foul by Waldemar Anton on goalkeeper Orlando Gill. Germany won all four of its previous World Cup penalty kick shootouts, succeeding on 17 of 18 kicks — including 15 in a row. Havertz's attempt on the opening kick was saved by Gill, who also batted away Nick Woltemade's effort on Germany's fourth kick. Tah skied Germany's sixth kick over the crossbar, José Canale beat Manuel Neuer and Paraguay won the shootout 4-3 after the 1-1 draw only to lose 1-0 to France in the round of 16.

Breakout player

Pau Cubarsí, a 19-year-old Barcelona defender, played every minute of every match as Spain won its second title and first since 2010. He had 668 successful passes in 690 attempts, a 96.8% rate that was the second best in the tournament among players with 400 or more attempts, just behind Norway's Sander Berge at 96.9%. Cubarsí's total was second to teammate Rodri's 747. Cubarsí's 750 minutes tied teammate Marc Cucurella and Mac Allister for the tournament high among outfield players. At 19 years, 178 days he became the seventh youngest to win a World Cup, trailing Pelé (17-249), Ronaldo (17-298), Giuseppe Bergomi (18-174), teammate Lamine Yamal and Coutinho (both 19-6) and Marco Antonio (19-135).

Save of the tournament

Vozinha, Cape Verde's 40-year-old goalkeeper, leapt to his left to slap away Lionel Messi's quick free kick in the 73rd minute that was headed to the upper corner, keeping the score 1-1.

Blunder of the tournament

Matt Freese had a howler in the United States' 4-1 loss to Belgium in the round of 16 that will long be replayed among goalkeeper lowlights. Brandon Mechele played a long ball from deep in his own end and when Charles De Ketelaere burst past American defender Chris Richards, Freese came off his line and about 5 yards outside the penalty area chested the ball, which had taken two hops. The 27-year-old, who became the No. 1 U.S. goalkeeper last year, was about to clear the ball with his left foot, hesitated and tried to pass to his left only for the ball to deflect off a leg of De Ketelaere toward midfield. Hans Vanaken scored from about 30 yards as defender Tim Ream missed his attempt to block the ball.

Worst foul

Qatari midfielder Assim Madibo broke the left tibia and fibula of Canadian midfielder Ismaël Koné with a tackle from behind in the 51st minute of a June 18 group stage match at Vancouver, British Columbia. Madibo received a red card and a five-game suspension. Koné had surgery and Madibo visited Koné at the hospital.

Fan base of the tournament

Norway's fans charmed fellow spectators and television viewers when they performed the Viking Ro w, chanting “Ro!” while mimicking oarsmen in stadiums and even in the bleachers above the TKTS booth selling Broadway theater tickets in New York's Times Square. Martin Ødegaard and Erling Haaland led the row celebration on the field following wins. Scotland's Tartan Army also left indelible memories, depleting Boston's beer supply and taking an excursion to a baseball games at Fenway Park and in Miami.

Best photo

Raúl Jiménez scored Mexico's second goal in the tournament-opening 2-0 win over South Africa on June 11. An image from Associated Press photographer Natacha Pisarenko captured the joy of a player who scored on a header, six years after his career was endangered when he fractured his skull while playing for Wolverhampton in a clash of heads with Arsenal's David Luiz.

___

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

“I've made a decision," Darline Graham told Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity, according to a clip released of an interview set to air later Monday. “I'm in.”

The entrance of Darline Graham — sworn in last week to fulfill the remaining months of her late brother's term, which expires in January — into the Republican scramble to select a new Senate nominee further complicates an already rushed process following Lindsey Graham 's death earlier this month.

A weeklong filing period opens Tuesday for the special Republican primary, which will be Aug. 11. On Friday, President Donald Trump said that Darline Graham had his “Complete and Total Endorsement” to seek the nomination, adding, “RUN, DARLINE, RUN!”

Last week, Gov. Henry McMaster appointed Darline Graham to serve the remainder of her brother’s term, which ends in January. In his announcement, McMaster made no reference to Darline Graham as a placeholder or symbolic appointment, although a person familiar with McMaster’s thinking but unauthorized to speak publicly said the governor, in selecting Darline Graham, had never contemplated that she would run for the seat herself.

Before the emergence of Darline Graham — and their Oval Office meeting after she was sworn in — Trump had previously suggested he could back a potential candidacy from Rep. Russell Fry, who said Monday he would officially enter the special primary.

Several other noteworthy politicians, including Rep. Ralph Norman, have already gotten in, and others like Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette have been eyeing a run. Rep. Nancy Mace announced Monday she would not enter the contest.

Darline Graham told Hannity said she had been “praying a lot” about how to navigate her new role.

“It is a tremendous amount of pressure," she said.

“I know I’m a hard worker. I learned that from Lindsey,” Darline Graham said. "I feel like I can do it. I feel an inner peace about it. Will it be difficult? Yes.”

Funeral services for Lindsey Graham are scheduled to be held next week in Washington and South Carolina. A preliminary report from the medical examiner said he suffered a tear in his aorta.

The millions in Lindsey Graham's campaign account aren’t funds that Darline Graham could directly access in a run of her own, according to Bradley A. Smith, a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission.

Under federal rules, Lindsey Graham’s campaign would be limited to transferring just $2,000 to a potential Darline Graham candidacy. However, Smith said there is no limit on how much it could transfer to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which could — thanks to a Supreme Court decision last month — “spend an unlimited amount in coordination with Darline’s campaign.”

___

Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP

The group had gathered Sunday along the Scioto River in the Columbus suburb of Powell when one of them went into the river for a swim. “That’s when the tragedy started to occur,” Delaware County Sheriff Jeffrey Balzer said at a news conference. He said others who jumped in to help also began struggling.

A motorist called 911 after spotting a frightened child with the group who was running along a nearby road to seek help, Balzer said.

Rescue crews searching the water later Sunday found two women who were pronounced dead at a hospital, Balzer said. The bodies of three men were found in the river on Monday, said Tracy Whited, a spokesperson for the Delaware County Sheriff’s Department. Authorities did not say exactly where the victims were found.

The river was running high and fast on Sunday, according to data from a U.S. Geological Survey water gauge at the nearby dam. The data shows the water was flowing at a rate of about 350 cubic feet (10 cubic meters) per second on Sunday — more than a fourfold increase over a three-day span, and more than double the average rate.

The tragedy occurred two days after five people were killed in southern Utah after a flash flood swept through scenic red rock canyons during a hiking excursion.

The Ohio sheriff said the child who ran for help, prompting the 911 call, has been placed in the care of family services along with another child under the age of 10. Authorities were working on notifying relatives of the victims, he said.

Balzer said people who gather near water must be aware of the conditions and take precautions.

“Know your skill level before you get in the water. Are you a confident swimmer?” Balzer said. “Make sure you have other people around in case something goes wrong to notify someone.”

The pilot, Kenneth Jouppi, sued to block his plane's seizure after he was convicted of an alcohol-related misdemeanor charge. The Alaska Supreme Court ruled in the state's favor that Jouppi's plane was subject to criminal forfeiture laws.

On Monday, however, the nation's highest court agreed to hear Jouppi's case. He argues that taking his 1969 Cessna would violate the Eighth Amendment's “Excessive Fines Clause." Arguments are expected in the fall.

“I’m in my 80s now, and I’ve been fighting this for over a decade because I see it as my duty to ensure that the Bill of Rights actually means something in protecting against government overreach,” Jouppi said in a statement released by his attorneys at the Institute for Justice.

In April 2012, Jouppi was preparing to fly a passenger from Fairbanks to a remote village, Beaver, where alcohol was banned. The passenger had packed beer with other groceries in her luggage. State Police troopers searched Jouppi's plane before it departed and spotted a six-pack of Budweiser in a shopping bag.

Jouppi, his company and the passenger were charged with a misdemeanor offense of knowingly transporting an alcoholic beverage into a dry community. The passenger pleaded guilty. A jury convicted Jouppi and the company after a trial. A judge sentenced him to three days in jail.

Jouppi's attorneys say Alaska's high court examined his conduct “purely in abstract terms” and didn't evaluate whether it was part of a broader pattern of criminal activity. And they say it wasn't.

“Few excessive fines cases will present the issue so sharply; a decision upholding the forfeiture of an airplane for a six-pack is a self-recommending candidate for review,” lawyers from the Institute for Justice wrote in their appeal.

In response, lawyers from the Alaska Attorney General's office argued that the state Supreme Court's “fact-bound decision” should be allowed to stand.

“Courts across the country apply a multi-factor test to determine whether a fine or forfeiture is grossly disproportional to the gravity of the offense,” they wrote. “Jouppi does not claim that the four-part standard applied by the Alaska Supreme Court is wrong, only that the court misapplied settled law by giving too much weight to some factors and not enough weight to others.”

Jouppi's attorneys argue that the ruling from the state's highest court conflicts with case law established in other courts, including U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

“The Excessive Fines Clause was built for cases like this,” they said.

Alaska's attorneys said Jouppi hasn't shown how punishing him with forfeiture of his plane is “grossly disproportional to the gravity of his offense.”

“Alcohol abuse is a serious problem in rural Alaska, and airplanes are sometimes the only realistic means to commit the crime of alcohol importation,” they wrote.

The depression was centered Monday afternoon about 105 miles (165 kilometers) south of Panama City, Florida, and had top sustained winds of 35 mph (55 kph). It was expected to gradually strengthen and reach tropical storm status in the coming hours, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

The Miami-based center said the system was roughly moving to the northwest near 3 mph (6 kph) on a path that would take it near or along the northern Gulf Coast over several days/ A storm surge watch has been issued, extending from the mouth of the Mississippi River to the Alabama-Florida border on the Gulf Coast.

A tropical storm watch also is in effect from the Ochlockonee River in Florida westward to southeastern Louisiana at the Jefferson and Plaquemines parish line.

The National Weather Service office in New Orleans said storm conditions may set in from the Florida Panhandle westward into Louisiana by Tuesday. It warned of wind gusts of 40 mph (60 kph) and noted a possible “life threatening" storm surge watch for the Alabama, Mississippi and southeastern Louisiana coasts.

Storm surges of up to four feet (1.2 meters) could occur in portions of the Louisiana and Mississippi coastlines, the hurricane center said, warning there also could be an isolated tornado or two possible over the Florida Big Bend region this week.

Areas of flash flooding will also be possible through Friday along the coast, from western Florida to middle Texas, the weather service said. It added that rainfall could reach 3 to 5 inches (7 to 12 centimeters) along the Louisiana coastline with higher amounts expected in some areas, notably south of Lake Pontchartrain.

Meanwhile, in the eastern Pacific Ocean, Tropical Storm Fausto strengthened Monday and was nearing hurricane status far out to sea from Mexico.

Fausto had top sustained winds of 70 mph (110 kph) on Monday and was located about 745 miles (1,205 kilometers) southwest of the southern tip of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula. The hurricane center said it was moving northwest at 10 mph (17 kph) while posing no threat to land.

The push by the Republican president's administration to compel the identity of sources in the form of additional subpoenas comes at a time when the executive branch's relationship with the press is increasingly contentious. The efforts, described in a letter-motion filed by the Times over the weekend, were more expansive than previously known, the newspaper noted, and also covered a time frame that exceeded the news articles in question.

“Two of the subpoenas seek records beginning on January 1, 2026, long before the events that are purportedly the basis for the Department’s investigation,” lawyers for the Times wrote in the letter. “That timeframe strongly suggests that the Department is using this investigation not to focus on any purported concerns arising from the July 8 and 9 articles, but instead to forage for information about the Journalists’ source relationships more broadly.”

Government has said reporters aren't the target

The phone records subpoenas are on top of grand jury subpoenas served July 10 on three journalists that sought to compel testimony from the reporters about the identify of their sources. The Times has separately challenged those grand jury subpoenas and U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian is scheduled to hear arguments Thursday. The judge has also frozen enforcement of the phone records subpoenas pending a ruling on the newspaper's motion to quash those.

Lawyers for the newspaper noted that some of the phone records subpoenas were issued on the same day as the grand jury ones, an additional one was issued the following day and another was issued on July 16 — after the Times had already moved to quash the grand jury subpoenas.

In arguing for the phone records subpoenas to be spiked, the Times said the government had acted in “bad faith” and had ignored its own protocols by not giving the journalists advance notice that records were being sought and by demanding the information “without first conducting any serious investigation.”

The newspaper’s lawyers said the additional subpoenas call “into question the accuracy” of testimony given last week by Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, where the grand jury subpoenas were issued. At his confirmation hearing to be the Trump administration's director of national intelligence, Clayton said that “we followed the protocols” and that the government had taken “the least intrusive possible” steps possible.

The Justice Department has justified the grand jury subpoenas by saying that “reporters are not the targets, those leaking classified information are.” Asked about the phone records subpoenas, the department said Monday: "Any subpoena issued by the Department of Justice is done so in full compliance with federal law and internal Department policy.”

The additional subpoenas included a request for phone records of one reporter's mother and two of the journalists' spouses. The motion noted that the mother in question is a mental health professional with confidential client relationships and that one of the two spouses is the general counsel of a law firm.

"The disclosure of additional subpoenas for confidential newsgathering information of the Journalists is deeply concerning, revealing yet another instance of the alarming pattern of conduct detailed in the Motion to Quash,” the news organization’s lawyers wrote.

“These actions demonstrate abuse of the grand jury process, continued bad faith attacks on the Journalists, violations of the Department’s own internal regulations and disregard for the law in this Circuit intended to protect critical First Amendment interests," the motion stated.

It's part of an ongoing legal challenge

The grand jury subpoenas, delivered to reporters at their homes, marked a dramatic escalation of the Trump administration’s crackdown on media leaks that free press advocates swiftly condemned as a government effort to intimidate news organizations. It followed an FBI search earlier this year of a Washington Post reporter’s home and the seizure of her electronic devices.

The new jet in question, a present from Qatar that Trump’s administration spent $400 million to retrofit and upgrade, recently entered service. But Trump used an older model Air Force One jet to leave a NATO summit in Turkey earlier this month.

The Times, citing anonymous sources, reported that the switch had come at the urging of the Secret Service and that the newer plane lacked some of the advanced security features of the older Air Force One aircraft, including antimissile capabilities. On social media, Trump denied security concerns.

Trump's administration has clashed with the press, from newspapers to TV networks to the Voice of America, on multiple fronts since he returned to office last year. The methods include lawsuits, administrative actions and public threats.

The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the press' ability to operate free of governmental restrictions.

Gang leaders in the troubled Caribbean country are prolific users of social media and have celebrated killings, issued threats and posted musings on various sites. Younger gang members also post music videos and wave cash they've earned in an effort to recruit children in the impoverished nation.

Mike Waltz, who recently visited Haiti, called the practice “incredibly disturbing” and warned the U.S. would “shut that down” in the near future. He didn’t provide further details while speaking at a U.N. Security Council meeting in New York.

He spoke as the U.S. prepares this week to strip the temporary protected status of some 350,000 Haitians who live in the United States, exposing them to deportation, a move largely criticized by lawyers and human rights experts.

Efforts to crack down on the gangs' use of social media are not new. In 2023, YouTube banned Johnson André, considered Haiti's most powerful gang leader and also known as Izo, following heavy criticism after he received an award for surpassing more than 100,000 subscribers.

The U.S. envoy also called on countries with aircraft capacity to help with the deployment of foreign troops joining the latest U.N.-backed mission in Haiti to fight gangs, including Sri Lanka and Ivory Coast. He said sea lifts take too long and that Haitians need help now.

Gang violence surges as Haitians in US brace for deportation

Gang violence has displaced a record almost 1.5 million people across Haiti, where more than half of the country's nearly 12 million inhabitants need humanitarian aid.

More than 2,300 people have been killed and more than 1,100 injured since January, according to the U.N. Earlier this year, clashes in the Cite Soleil slum in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, led to 542 killings and 355 injuries. In addition, at least 176 women and girls were raped, the U.N. found.

Waltz shared how gangs recently surrounded an armored vehicle that got stuck in a ditch and lit a fire underneath, forcing Haitian police officers to flee.

“They were flayed alive on the streets,” Waltz said, adding that their bodies were pinned to the side of the vehicle to send a message.

“I want everyone to understand the fight ahead,” he added.

Waltz noted that Haiti needs equipment including heavy bulldozers to clear streets and gang-controlled checkpoints, adding that armed men have taken over roads, ports, hospitals, prisons and other state infrastructure.

“Haiti’s just a few hundred miles from Florida,” he said. “In that regard, it’s a critical interest to the United States.”

Gangs control an estimated 70% of Port-au-Prince, and about half of gang members are children, according to the U.N. Poverty and hunger are deepening.

“The situation of children in Haiti is among the most alarming anywhere in the world,” said Vanessa Frazier, the U.N.’s special representative for children and armed conflict. “Children are being killed, maimed, abducted, recruited and used by armed gangs, displaced from their homes, denied access to education and deprived of basic protection and legal identity.”

Jack Christofides, special representative of the U.N.-backed gang suppression force operating in Haiti, said it has established its headquarters, deployed its first forward operating base and recently began cracking down on gang infrastructure.

“The political and humanitarian environment nevertheless remains extremely challenging,” he said. “Armed gangs are likely to adapt their tactics to stay in control.”

Haiti is under pressure to hold elections

The international community has been pressuring Haiti to hold general elections, which would be the first in more than a decade.

While the country is led by Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, who was appointed, it hasn’t had a president since President Jovenel Moïse was killed at his private residence in July 2021. Gang violence has surged since then.

Seven of Haiti’s 10 provinces are ready for electoral activities, while the gang suppression force is vital to restoring security in the remaining three, said Raina Forbin, Haiti’s foreign affairs minister.

The three provinces include Port-au-Prince, and overall they account for more than half of all voters, noted Carlos Ruiz Massieu, the U.N. secretary-general’s special representative for Haiti. He noted the displacement caused by gang violence and said the voter registration that began on Monday “will give us a new reality of where the voters are currently.”

Forbin said that by year’s end, an additional 4,000 officers are expected to join Haiti’s National Police, which remains understaffed and underfunded. Meanwhile, an additional 1,500 recruits are expected to join Haiti’s revived Armed Forces.

Joshua Kerry was charged after more than a week in custody on suspicion of murder and acts of terror. Police are continuing to investigate his motive, including a potential political or terrorist connection, prosecutors said.

The death of Widdecombe, 78, a former member of Parliament, shocked the British political world, where Widdecombe was a prominent voice for decades. She was a blunt-speaking character known for socially conservative views opposing abortion and the expansion of LGBTQ+ rights.

Police said they believe Widdecombe was attacked July 8. She failed to appear that afternoon for a scheduled TV interview and was found dead the next day in her isolated rural home in a southwest England village.

Police did not disclose a cause of death, saying only that she had sustained “serious injuries” in what they called a targeted and brutal attack.

“I want to make it very clear that our investigation into this individual, determining his motivations and any wider activity he may have been involved in is continuing," said Laurence Taylor, head of counter-terrorism policing.

“Given Ann Widdecombe’s profile and the targeted nature of the attack, determining the motivation, including any possible political motivation, remains an active avenue of investigation for our detectives," he said.

Taylor added that the investigation is intensive and complex, and detectives were working through more than 800 lines of inquiry.

Kerry was arrested July 11 in South Yorkshire county in northern England, more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) from the village of Haytor on the edge of Dartmoor National Park, where Widdecombe was found dead Thursday.

Kerry remains in custody and is scheduled to appear in Westminster Magistrates' Court on Tuesday.

He was originally arrested on suspicion of murder, but after finding new evidence while he was custody, he was rearrested on suspicion of commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.

Widdecombe was in the House of Commons from 1987 to 2010, serving in roles including prisons minister in Prime Minister John Major’s 1990s Conservative government.

She found fame after leaving Parliament as a contestant on the reality television shows “Strictly Come Dancing” and “Celebrity Big Brother.”

She later joined the Brexit Party, briefly serving as a member of the European Parliament before Britain left the European Union in 2020. Most recently, she joined the anti-immigration Reform UK party, often appearing in the media as a spokesperson.

The killing has renewed concerns for politicians about security, which was tightened in the past decade after the murders of two serving members of Parliament. Labour lawmaker Jo Cox was shot and stabbed in 2016 by a far-right extremist, and Conservative David Amess was stabbed in 2021 by an attacker inspired by the Islamic State group.

The proposal, if passed by Congress, would require data centers to obtain all their electricity and water needs from private sources, rather than the power grid or public water systems. The idea aligns with an earlier, voluntary initiative from President Donald Trump.

“If you talk to these guys who are building these data centers, if it means that they have to pick up the utility costs, they’re more than willing to do it,” Donalds said in an interview with The Associated Press. “It’s in their interest to make sure that we can construct these centers, and I think the number one way you address and mitigate the concerns that people are having is to just ensure their utility bills aren’t going up in the process.”

Donalds' proposal is noteworthy coming from a candidate backed by pro-AI political action committees and Trump. The legislation comes during a rapid nationwide buildout of data centers to match growing demand for artificial intelligence systems. Major technology firms at the heart of the AI boom have quickly become some of the world’s most valuable and watched companies, while the Trump administration has aligned itself with the industry’s major players.

Several major tech companies developing AI infrastructure have committed to agreements with the Trump administration to cover the expenses of building new power sources rather than shifting the burden to residential households. But given the expected increase in demand, it’s unclear if the voluntary agreement is legally enforceable.

The furious pace of construction and high stakes of the technology have raised concerns among many Americans. In Florida, more than 20 counties and municipalities have voted to reject the construction of major data centers, while others have banned their construction for at least a year. Residents and local leaders often cite concerns over increased utility bills, disruption of local communities and environmental damage as major reasons for the pauses.

“These companies have been a step behind and didn’t realize how quickly the ground was shifting under their feet,” said Matt Gorman, a Republican strategist. Gorman said that progressive climate activists and conservative populists have both seized on the data center issue, requiring tech firms to “tell a better story” and address concerns from across the political spectrum.

“This is a full-court effort here,” Gorman said. “If you don’t tell that story, you’re going to have it mandated on you from lawmakers of both parties.”

Donalds is running to succeed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a fellow Republican who in May signed legislation that required large-scale data centers to pay their own energy and water costs entirely. Donalds, should he be elected governor, said he’d focus on improving efficiency among data centers and moving the facilities away from population centers.

“We just want to make sure that if they do get built, they’re being built efficiently while protecting ratepayers and protecting Florida’s water,” Donalds said. “The real public policy question for the country and for states is how are we going to generate baseload power for future energy demands, whether it’s for hyperscale data centers or for anything else.”

James Fishback, a far-right Republican candidate for governor, has made opposition to data centers a center of his primary challenge to Donalds. And David Jolly, a former congressman and the leading Democratic gubernatorial candidate, this month called for a moratorium on the construction of data centers.

Travis Fisher, a fellow at the Cato Institute, said public companies usually push for the best deals to access public utilities. He said any willingness to pick up a bigger tab for energy and water reflects the political pressure facing tech firms.

“They are very afraid that they’re going to, I'd say, lose their social license to operate, as if they’re basically going to get run out of town or banned,” said Fisher.

The three-time season champion had won at least one race in each of his previous 14 seasons racing in the NASCAR Cup Series entering this past weekend, the longest such streak among active drivers and just five behind the late Kyle Busch's record of 19.

He desperately wanted it to continue.

But as the weeks passed and the races came and went, Logano and the Team Penske No. 22 Ford team found themselves in search of speed — and their first victory of the 2026 season.

Twenty races, no wins.

Logano said doubt was beginning to creep in, as he found himself outside the cutline in the Chase for the Championship. (Only 16 drivers qualify for the playoffs, and he was 17th.)

As for winning a race? Well ...

“You start to wonder, am I going to have a chance this year to capitalize and (win) one?” Logano said.

Logano unstoppable at NWS

It turns out all Logano needed to regain his swagger was a trip to what he calls his “best track.”

Logano dominated the field Sunday night to extend his streak to 15 straight seasons with a win at North Wilkesboro Speedway, where he destroyed the competition in the All-Star race two years ago.

It ended a brutal drought of 45 starts without a win.

He was so unstoppable at the 0.625-mile track that all second-place finisher Denny Hamlin could do following the race was dab up Logano and congratulate him for masterfully navigating his way through lapped traffic.

Logano led 323 of 450 laps.

“It’s wildly impressive what he did,” Hamlin said.

Logano won every restart and simply pulled away from the pack, sometimes leading by more than five seconds. Hamlin offered a challenge late in the race, but the Cup points leader could never run Logano down.

Logano: It's been a tough year

Logano acknowledged it's been a tough year.

“Any time you kind of lack in speed, you start to question a lot of things around you, what the process is, what we’re doing, (even) yourself," Logano said. "All those things come to mind on why there’s not speed.”

But he has been around the pits long enough to know that stock car racing has its ebbs and flows given the changes to the cars and to the rules. Sometimes it feels like you're in a rocket ship and can't lose; other times you're stuck in the mud and can't buy a checkered flag.

This year — and for that matter, most of last year — it felt more like quicksand.

But Logano said his team never panicked and focused on finding a solution to its speed problem.

The strategy at North Wilkesboro: Don’t screw up

Logano was thrilled when NASCAR announced last year that North Wilkesboro would be added as a points race for first time in 30 years.

And why not? Nobody runs better here than him.

His crew seems to have mastered how to the set up the car through plenty of testing at the track, making things easier for him as a driver.

“I mean, when you have a car that fast, you kind of just make sure you don’t screw it up, right?” Logano said. “Don’t do anything dumb on pit road. Restarts, a little more conservative.”

Where does Logano go from here?

Now safely inside the playoff cutline, Logano hopes Sunday's win will serve as a springboard with five races left before the playoffs.

“The job’s not done,” Logano said. “We still want to win the championship. We got some great tracks coming up ahead of us, so there’s definitely a lot of confidence in that. That’s definitely real, that we feel like we can capitalize on it. We capitalized on it today.”

Logano isn't one to spend much time looking in the rearview mirror, reflecting on the trophies he's won.

His focus is always on the next race.

“You just keep grinding. I can’t say I’ve ever felt like, because of the things I did in the past, it’s going to guarantee success in the future," Logano said. "I don’t think that’s the right way to look at it.”

Logano's crew chief: Goal is to improve on 1 1/2-mile ovals

Crew chief Paul Wolfe knows the team's strength is short-track racing, and that's where Logano currently feels most comfortable in the No. 22.

Two of the next five races are at short tracks, so that's a bonus.

But in order to compete for a fourth championship, Wolfe acknowledged, he needs to figure out how to pick up speed at the mile-and-a-half ovals.

“We still have a lot of work to do to get the other style racetracks where they need to be, the ones we’ve obviously struggled on this year,” Wolfe said. “I think the first thing we need to do is make sure we execute on these weekends here leading up to the end of the regular season and score those points to at least give ourselves a shot.”

___

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/apf-AutoRacing

Twelve states, led by California, sued to block Paramount’s pending buyout of Warner last week — alleging that such a combination would “extinguish competition” in Hollywood and lead to fewer choices for consumers, particularly moviegoers and cable customers across the U.S.

The states’ top prosecutors called on Warner and Paramount to not close the transaction until after a court had time to fully evaluate their claims. And when the companies refused, they filed for a temporary restraining order — which is what District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín granted on Monday. That opens the door to a potential preliminary injunction that the states are also seeking to effectively block the deal.

“This is a critical first win in our case to ensure this megamerger never sees the light of day,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement Monday. “History tells the tale of what happens when a few people have great power over markets that are central to Americans’ lives: fewer opportunities for more people, worse products and services for all people.”

A Warner-Paramount tie-up would bring together two of the five last legacy studios in Hollywood — as well as a host of TV networks, titles filling streaming libraries and news operations. Warner’s HBO Max, fan favorites like “Harry Potter” and even CNN would come under the same roof of Paramount-owned CBS, movies like “Top Gun” and the Paramount+ streaming service.

Paramount, which was bought out by Skydance just last year, has vowed to vigorously defend its acquisition — and touts regulatory greenlights the deal has received elsewhere, including from President Donald Trump's administration last month.

On Monday, Paramount said the states' antitrust arguments “are without merit” or “any basis in modern market realities" — and maintained that its merger with Warner will benefit consumers and workers alike. Timing for next steps also falls in line with the company's previous requests.

Deal is paused for at least two weeks

The temporary restraining order granted Monday halts the deal from progressing for at least 14 days, although the pause could be extended for up to 28 days. The court has set Aug. 3 as a date for a hearing on the states' preliminary injunction motion, but that schedule could also be pushed back.

The clock is ticking. Ahead of Monday’s decision, the companies proposed wrapping up a preliminary injunction hearing by the end of August, leaving time to make a possible appeal by Sept. 30 — a date on the top of Paramount’s mind because it’s pledged to pay shareholders added “ticking fee” compensation amounting to about $7 million per day if the deal isn’t closed by then.

But the states called such a timeline unprecedented and unfair. They maintain that payments Paramount might have to incur after Sept. 30 were the risk of a decision the company made on its own — and argued in a hearing held Friday that commencing a trial in April 2027 would allow enough time for discovery and presenting proper evidence.

Including billions of dollars in debt, Paramount’s proposed purchase of Warner is currently valued at nearly $111 billion based on outstanding shares.

What the states are challenging

Paramount has repeatedly pointed to tech and streaming companies’ growing reach across the entertainment industry — and argues that merging with Warner would particularly help it compete with bigger rivals like Netflix. Last week, it said the states’ challenge would help shield Netflix and others “who have harmed the market for theatrical exhibition” from meaningful competition.

The states’ case doesn’t focus on streaming. It alleges that a combined Paramount-Warner merger violates federal antitrust law because of what the companies’ combined reach would become across three markets: theatrical movie distribution, theater releases of bigger blockbusters and the licensing of basic cable channels.

Their complaint says a combined Paramount-Warner could control nearly a third of both the theatrical film distribution market as well as basic cable programming. The states argued this would create a “media behemoth" with enough power to both raise prices for consumers and threaten workers’ wages, while reducing production and quality of content.

In terms of movie theater releases, Paramount’s lawyers have pointed to a growing list of blockbuster hits from studios that are not in Hollywood’s “big five,” such as A24 and Amazon’s MGM. The states maintain the core legacy studios — which beyond Warner and Paramount include Disney, Universal and Sony — still make up the vast majority of the market.

Beyond California, states challenging the deal include Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Washington.

Other regulatory clearances

Outside of the U.S., Paramount has touted greenlights from regulators in countries like China, Canada and Australia. But regulatory reviews are also ongoing in the European Union and the U.K., which has separately suggested it may intervene.

Meanwhile, the Writers Guild of America has filed its own lawsuit seeking to block the merger. And Paramount faces additional legal fights, including from a shareholder accusing CEO David Ellison and his father Larry Ellison (who is putting up tens of billions of dollars to back the deal for his son’s company) of promising “illegal, private benefits” to Trump in order to get the merger through.

Paramount has repeatedly dismissed such accusations, and the U.S. Justice Department maintained its review was not political.

Still, politics have come into question throughout Paramount's quest for Warner. Beyond Trump’s relationship with the Ellison family, critics of the deal also stress what new ownership could mean for Warner assets like CNN — a network that has long attracted ire from the Republican president — particularly in light of editorial turmoil at Paramount-owned CBS since Skydance’s takeover.

The contrast between the 12 states’ complaint, brought forth by all Democratic attorneys general, and the federal government’s blessing only underlines all of that further.

“It’s a political merger. It’s the product of the president’s engagement in private business affairs,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a webinar about the states' case last week. She maintained the states had been successful in challenging the Trump administration before and "we're not finished yet.”

The demands came in a letter spearheaded by Maine's Independent Sen. Angus King, signed by 38 Democratic senators and sent to the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE. The demands follow two deadly shootings in which ICE officers shot and killed immigrants in Houston and Maine.

The Associated Press reported last week that the ICE officer in Maine who opened fire and killed a man from Colombia had a history of violent behavior toward family members that was detailed in family court records.

His first ex-wife, Ashley Brouillette, told AP he was physically violent with her, including once throwing boiling water at her while she was holding their child.

His second ex-wife, Lucinda Brouillette, sent a statement over the weekend alleging “a persistent pattern of abuse, intimidation, manipulation, fear, and control.”

“Throughout our marriage and in the years that followed, I have feared for a long time that his anger, aggression, and escalating behavior would eventually result in severe, life threatening violence, and I often believed I would be the one on the receiving end of it,” she wrote.

Hundreds of pages of family court documents describe their turbulent marriage, and the years after. Lucinda Brouillette told the court he had stalked and harassed her and physically and verbally abused his daughter, according to multiple requests for temporary protection orders. Brouillette tackled his teenage daughter and smashed spaghetti in her hair, and during another outburst, he dragged his daughter around the house as she cried, she said.

“Dave needs counseling or something for his PTSD & depression,” she wrote in an application for a temporary protective order on behalf of his teenage daughter which a judge granted in 2021.

In court filings, David Brouillette said that his second ex-wife had slandered him.

Multiple family members told the AP the government should have never given him a gun, badge and the authority to patrol city streets as the Trump administration ramps up its mass deportation agenda.

The senators' letter on Monday listed new measures to increase accountability at the agency, including transparency about whether ICE considers records from family court of domestic violence or abuse when vetting new recruits.

"We remain supportive of removing dangerous convicted criminals from our communities, but this goal can and must be achieved without endangering these very communities in the process. By no stretch could either of the victims in Texas and Maine be characterized as ‘the worst of the worst,’ making these tragic deaths even more egregious," the senators wrote. “The American people deserve clarity and accountability.”

They said ICE should immediately start wearing uniforms or vests that clearly identify them as “ICE” instead of the more generic “POLICE” or “POLICE ICE.” Civil rights groups and advocates have often criticized ICE for not wearing uniforms or clear identification on their ballistics vests identifying them as deportation officers.

Senators also demanded to know what changes were being made to how officers conduct traffic stops and vehicle pursuits.

The shootings in Maine and Houston both involved ICE officers shooting at people who were in vehicles at the time. In the wake of the Maine shooting, Homeland Security temporarily stopped officers from conducting vehicle stops except in specific situations. But just a day later, after fierce criticism from some MAGA supporters, President Donald Trump said on social media that traffic stops should continue.

Homeland Security said last week that it was adding new training in crowd-control measures, high-risk vehicle stops, live-fire exercises and medical training, in response to what they called coordinated attacks against their officers and ICE facilities.

The tax holiday runs through Aug. 20, allowing shoppers to purchase a variety of school-related items without paying state sales tax.

Eligible items include:

• Clothing, shoes, backpacks and other bags priced at $100 or less
• School supplies costing $50 or less
• Learning aids priced at $30 or less
• Personal computers costing up to $1,500 when purchased for personal use

To help students prepare for the upcoming school year, the Carey Family Foundation is hosting a shopping spree for 23 children Monday at Dick’s Sporting Goods in Pembroke Pines.

Former Miami Dolphins and University of Miami standout Vernon Carey, along with Latavia Carey and the Carey Family Foundation, will provide each child with $300 to spend on school essentials, including clothing, shoes and other supplies.

The students participating in the shopping event are enrolled in the foundation’s Summer Reading Program at the Carver Ranches Boys & Girls Club.

Organizers say the event is designed to ease the financial burden on families while ensuring students have the supplies they need to start the school year prepared.

“I remember being a kid and me being one of those kids participating in one of these events and people pouring into me, so I wanted to be able to keep that going,” Vernon Carey said.

The shopping spree coincides with the start of Florida’s back-to-school sales tax holiday, giving families another opportunity to stretch their budgets before classes resume.

Click here for more information on the sales tax holiday.

According to Lauderhill police, the shooting was reported just before 10:15 p.m. at an apartment complex in the 6800 block of Landings Drive.

“It was about 12 to 15 rounds,” one neighbor said. “It was like ‘bam, bam, bam, bam.’ All of us were hitting the deck. Super loud. I’ve heard shotguns before so I knew it was right outside because they were that close and that loud.”

Police said officers arrived at the scene and found a man suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.

“At first I heard like talking and then screaming, and then there were a lot of gunshots,” a woman who lives at the complex said. “We turned off the TV and stuff, and then a couple minutes later we heard the police and ambulance and everything.”

Lauderhill Fire Rescue medics pronounced the victim dead at the scene, authorities said.

Detectives say a motive for the shooting remains unclear and there are no known suspects at this time.

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call the Lauderhill Police Department at 954-497-4700 or Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477 (TIPS).

Platner’s departure followed a sexual assault allegation that he denied but forced his exit anyway. It sparked a wave of potential candidates eager to prove to Mainers that they could take on longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins.

But by Sunday, the field had largely been cleared after Jackson supporters spent the weekend securing hundreds of delegates who promised to back him at the upcoming state convention. Under a never-before-used system to replace Platner, delegates will vote Saturday in Bangor on a new Senate nominee. Out of the 601 delegates who will gather this weekend, Jackson's campaign says they have 481 delegates committed to supporting him.

Top opponents — ranging from Secretary of State Shenna Bellows to Nirav Shah, former director of Maine’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention — have since dropped out, while Jackson announced Monday that he was focusing his attention on ousting Collins.

"I’m grateful to Democrats across Maine for putting their faith in me and in what we’re fighting for,” Jackson said in a statement. “This didn’t happen because of one person. It happened because hundreds of volunteers put in the hours, knocked on doors, made phone calls, and believed we could build something bigger than ourselves.”

There are challenges ahead for Jackson in a race with Collins

Yet securing the nomination is only just the beginning of challenges facing Jackson. There's little more than 100 days until the general election, meaning Jackson faces an uphill battle raising campaign funds when Collins already has millions. Jackson also must implement a statewide campaign network and woo over the state's large independent base.

As former state Senate president, Jackson may be more politically vetted than Platner was running as a first-time candidate, but the logger's backing of progressive policies will leave him open to plenty of attacks by Republicans, said Nicholas Jacobs, a political scientist at Colby College in Maine.

“The guy does have some pretty interesting positions,” Jacobs said. “Positions that are pretty far to the left of the median voter.”

Jackson supports ‘Medicare for All' and eliminating ICE

Like Platner, Jackson has said he wants to “get rid of” Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has become top of mind for many Mainers after an ICE officer fatally shot a driver last week. Democrats have rushed to connect Collins to the embattled federal agency, while Jackson has reiterated his support of dissolving ICE altogether.

Jackson has also called for “Medicare for All,” which would replace job-based and individual private health insurance with a government-run plan that guarantees coverage for all with no premiums, no deductibles and only minimal copays for certain services.

Republicans were already criticizing Jackson as a “socialist” on Monday.

“This entire process is just as bad as Kamala’s rigged coronation,” said Republican National Committee spokesperson Kristen Cianci, nodding to former President Joe Biden's decision to drop out of the presidential race in July 2024, leaving Vice President Kamala Harris to head up the Democratic ticket and ultimately lose to Republican Donald Trump.

“Maine voters have had their voices stolen by party insiders," Cianci added.

Jackson first ran for office as a Republican

However, unlike the scrutiny Platner faced from a series of controversies, Jackson's background coming from “old Maine” and his decades of working in the logging industry will help him, Jacobs said.

“He's the real deal,” Jacobs said.

In 1998, Jackson helped lead a weeklong blockade along the Quebec border in an effort to protest the hiring of Canadian loggers who were coming into Maine and driving down pay rates. The standoff ended with Jackson being escorted away by police, but resulted in Jackson fighting for better logger and wood hauler protections as a state lawmaker.

Jackson initially ran as a Republican in 2000 when he sought a seat inside Maine's House of Representatives. He lost, but won two years later when he ran as an independent. He switched to the Democratic Party in 2004, and eventually became the Maine Senate president before leaving the Statehouse in 2024.

He came in third while running for governor in this year's Democratic primary election, but had the backing of Platner, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Our Revolution, the political organization founded by Sanders.

Democrats must net four Senate seats to gain control of the 100-member chamber, and party leaders viewed Maine as a critical piece of the puzzle, along with Alaska, Ohio and North Carolina.

On and off the court.

The spotlight that goes along with hosting one of the WNBA's marquee events is shining on a sputtering Chicago Sky franchise in the middle of another challenging season. The organization had no players selected for Saturday's game at the United Center.

Chicago is 5-5 in its past 10 games and 9-17 overall going into Wednesday's game at New York. The Sky have one of the league's worst records after they went 10-34 last year in their first season under coach Tyler Marsh. The franchise hasn't finished with a winning record since 2022, a year after it won the WNBA championship.

The big problem this year is finishing games. The Sky are 9-6 when they are leading or tied going into the fourth quarter. They blew a double-digit lead while losing each of their three games against Paige Bueckers and Dallas this season.

“It’s been a lot of the conversation in our locker room and in our team meetings and pinpointing the areas where we feel like we’ve come up short a little bit,” Marsh said, “but also highlighting areas where we feel like we’ve been doing pretty well to put us in position to win those games.”

Chicago was scheduled to move into a new practice facility ahead of this season, but it isn't expected to be finished until November now. That meant shifting some of this week's All-Star activities to the Obama Presidential Center.

Sky owner Michael Alter also is facing a lawsuit from a minority investor who alleges that he “breached his fiduciary duty to the minority investors ... and unfairly deprived them of the value of their investments." The suit also accuses Alter of running the team “with blatant disregard for the operating agreement and minimum standards of competence for business operations.”

Following a June 7 loss at Toronto, Sky guard Skylar Diggins called for more leadership and maturity from players and coaches. When Marsh made plans to use the seven-time All-Star as a reserve, Diggins posted on Instagram about her frustration with the decision.

The 35-year-old Diggins has missed the past six games with a right knee injury. She is averaging 14.2 points in her first season since signing with the team in free agency.

The addition of Diggins was part of a major offseason overhaul for the Sky. Angel Reese was traded to the Atlanta Dream in April, and the 6-foot-4 forward was selected for the All-Star Game for the third time. The Sky cut Hailey Van Lith in May, a year after the guard was the No. 11 pick in the draft.

Chicago acquired Rickea Jackson in an April trade with Los Angeles, and she got off to a fast start before tearing the ACL in her left knee in the fourth game of the season. The Sky have been hampered by several injuries this year.

“Honestly, with every team I’ve been on, we’ve dealt with that,” guard Jacy Sheldon said. “So I think that’s just something that comes with the game. ... We got to figure out ways to win, find ways to win, which you know we’re going to do with whoever we have out there.”

The return of DiJonai Carrington could help. Carrington, one of the league's top defensive players, is ramping up after missing the start of the season with a left foot injury. As she regains her form, she could be an option for Marsh for the final minutes of close games.

“I do think that we need to focus on closing games and playing to win as opposed to playing not to lose,” Carrington said. “Because in a lot of those games, we are up, and I feel like we stop playing the brand of basketball that got us to that point and try to switch it up in order to not lose. So I think we just need to focus on playing to win.”

___

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

Diez de las 16 regiones del país permanecen con alertas meteorológicas a raíz de la llegada de un sistema frontal a fines de la semana pasada que trajo consigo temporales, fuertes vientos, nevascas y deslizamientos de tierra desde el norte hasta el sur.

Se registra además al menos una persona desaparecida, mientras que 98.981 están aisladas y otras 1.179 albergadas, según informó en su más reciente balance el Servicio Nacional de Prevención y Respuesta ante Desastres (Senapred).

Tras una reunión para monitorear daños y medidas preventivas, el presidente chileno, José Antonio Kast, anunció el estado de catástrofe por emergencia ambiental, una medida que se aplica en situaciones excepcionales y otorga mayor autonomía a las Fuerzas Armadas para acelerar la ayuda, seguridad y reconstrucción.

“En virtud de las intensas lluvias de las últimas horas y de la complejización de la operación de los servicios básicos, he instruido decretar estado de excepción constitucional de catástrofe por calamidad pública en toda la región de Coquimbo y en la provincia de Huasco en Atacama”, expresó el mandatario.

La medida, agregó, fue dictaminada en medio de severas afectaciones como cortes de suministro de agua potable, desplazamientos de tierra, aumento de los caudales de ríos e interrupciones de la energía eléctrica. “Todos los recursos materiales y económicos están disponibles para enfrentar esta emergencia”, completó.

Las fuertes lluvias que azotan al país desde el pasado jueves han dejado además unas 2.205 personas damnificadas y 35 viviendas completamente destruidas, mientras que más de 15.000 han sufrido daños de diferentes proporciones, de acuerdo con Senapred.

El Ministerio de Educación suspendió las clases en decenas de comunas de las regiones del Atacama, Coquimbo, Valparaíso y Metropolitana, donde está Santiago. En la capital, la jornada transcurría con casi total normalidad, aunque algunas calles fueron cortadas debido a anegamientos y algunos accesos del metro tuvieron que ser cerrados debido a la acumulación de agua en su interior.

La Dirección Meteorológica de Chile prevé para los próximos días intensas precipitaciones, heladas nevadas y vientos, aunque las condiciones podrían suavizarse a partir del miércoles.

Los detectives acusaron a Edgar Olivas de matar a tiros a Walter Castañeda durante un robo poco después de las 8:10 p.m. del 1 de octubre de 2021, en el 443 de NW 12 Avenue, según los registros.

Castañeda, de 62 años, quien estaba armado con un revólver calibre .38, bajaba las persianas tras cerrar su tienda de Boost Mobile cuando Olivas lo emboscó, reportó la policía, de acuerdo con una orden de arresto.

“Suéltalo todo”, le ordenó Olivas, quien entonces tenía 36 años, a Castañeda, según relató un testigo a la policía, de acuerdo con la orden de arresto.

Olivas, residente de Orlando, le robó su bolso negro a Castañeda, quien sacó un revólver y le disparó. Olivas entonces respondió al fuego y huyó, según la orden.

El personal de Miami Fire Rescue trasladó a Castañeda al Ryder Trauma Center del Jackson Memorial Hospital, donde un médico lo declaró muerto más tarde, según los registros.

Un detective de homicidios de Miami rastreó el auto en el que huyó Olivas, un Honda Civic blanco de cuatro puertas, modelo 2022, que fue reportado como robado el 3 de octubre de 2021, según la policía.

El dueño del Honda Civic reportó haber alquilado el auto el 29 de septiembre de 2021 a una mujer que la policía identificó después como Megan Hester-Villalobos, de acuerdo con la orden de arresto.

El GPS del Honda ayudó a los detectives a encontrar evidencia en un motel en el 148 de NW 167 Street, cerca de North Miami Beach; en una gasolinera en el 744 de NW 12 Avenue, en La Pequeña Habana; y en un apartamento en el 2523 de N. Alafaya Trail, en Orlando, según la orden de arresto.

Agentes de la Oficina del Alguacil del condado de Orange ayudaron a los detectives de homicidios de Miami a encontrar un video del Honda publicado en una cuenta de Instagram que usaba Hester-Villalobos, de acuerdo con la orden de arresto.

El sistema correccional de Miami-Dade ingresó a Olivas, de 40 años, poco antes de las 8:55 a.m. del viernes en el Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, cerca de Doral, según los registros de reclusos del condado.

Olivas enfrentaba dos cargos: asesinato en primer grado y robo a mano armada con arma mortal, de acuerdo con los registros judiciales del condado. Un juez le negó la fianza.

Historia relacionada: Una familia en duelo dice que la forma en que la policía respondió a un robo en La Pequeña Habana le costó la vida a su ser querido

La policía sospecha que Justin Ramirez, de 24 años y residente de Sunny Isles Beach, abrió fuego desde una camioneta Audi en movimiento contra un BMW verde alquilado, cerca de Northwest 22nd Avenue y 36 Street, alrededor de las 8:10 p.m. del 5 de julio. Un niño de 2 años iba en el BMW, pero resultó ileso, según la policía.

Las autoridades dijeron que las víctimas, que buscaron atención médica en el Jackson Memorial Hospital, viajaban desde el condado de Broward hacia Brickell. El reporte de arresto del Departamento de Policía de Miami no indica un presunto motivo del tiroteo.

Según la policía, los detectives revisaron videos del tiroteo y lograron identificar el Audi Q8. Aunque el vehículo estaba registrado a nombre de otra persona, pudieron vincularlo a Ramirez después de que este recibiera una multa de tránsito en Lauderhill mientras lo manejaba.

Además, dijeron que los datos de lectores de placas ubicaron el Audi cerca de Bayfront Park el 1 de julio, el mismo día en que Ramirez publicó fotos en redes sociales asistiendo al FIFA Fan Fest, y una foto de él dentro del Audi “sosteniendo una botella de Sprite con un líquido morado consistente con jarabe de prometazina con codeína”, una mezcla conocida en la calle como “purple drank”.

El reporte indica que los detectives recuperaron del vehículo múltiples huellas dactilares latentes que coincidían con las de Ramirez, tras ejecutar una orden de registro el 9 de julio.

La policía dijo que después obtuvo una orden judicial para acceder a los datos del celular del sospechoso, que lo ubicaron en la escena del crimen.

Ramirez fue puesto bajo custodia poco después de las 12:45 p.m. del viernes en un vecindario de North Miami Beach.

El acusado, quien anteriormente estuvo en una prisión estatal por robo a mano armada, ahora enfrenta varios cargos, entre los que destacan cuatro de intento de asesinato.

Los registros muestran que salió de la cárcel tras pagar una fianza de $90,000.

Leer en español

“I heard this loud noise and it sounded like a bomb went off,” Terry said. “My husband told me, ‘Somebody just hit the house.’”

Three men were inside the car. Surveillance video shows the airbags deployed as they tried to get out. One of them grabbed a bag before Terry said they all fled the scene.

“I’m really surprised that they even walked away from it because the impact was so severe, the house shook,” Terry said. “My attic door fell down.”

It happened around 3:30 a.m. The Tesla took out the mailbox before hitting a Range Rover parked in the driveway and then eventually the home.

“Now I’ve got figure out who? Why? It’s aggravating,” Terry said.

Terry said she is grateful she and her husband are OK, but now she is hopeful someone can help catch the people who did this.

“The cars actually slowed him down because if not, if there was nothing here, he would have run into my bedroom,” Terry said.

Anyone with information is asked to call Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.

Leer en español

According to Plantation police, the shooting was reported Saturday afternoon at an apartment complex in the 4200 block of Northwest Fifth Street.

Police said officers arrived at the scene and found the victim, whose identity was redacted from the suspect’s arrest report, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.

“Witnesses at the scene immediately identified the suspected shooter, who was safely taken into custody by responding officers without incident,” the PPD said in a news release.

Police confirmed that the victim was transported by Plantation Fire Rescue medics to Broward Health Medical Center, where he was being treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

According to police, detectives discovered that two brothers had gotten into an argument when one of the brothers, Eric Zavala, 29, shot the other in the left hand and left upper leg while they were on the rear patio of their apartment unit.

Police said Zavala returned to the scene as they were tending to his brother.

According to his arrest report, Zavala admitted to police that his brother was sitting on the back patio when he went over to confront him about a new lighter that was now missing.

Zavala said his brother denied having the lighter, but he then noticed it on the patio, authorities said.

According to the report, Zavala said the argument escalated and his brother threatened to shoot him.

He said both he and his brother reached for the gun that was laying on a nearby grill and a struggle ensued for the gun before a shot was fired, striking his brother in the hand and leg, the report stated.

According to the report, he said he gave the gun to a woman who also lives at the apartment before going for a walk to calm down.

Zavala was arrested on a charge of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.

As of Monday morning, he was being held at the Broward County Main Jail on a $10,000 bond.

Leer en español

According to an arrest report by the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, Douglas Algaba, 40, was found to be in possession of 21 files of CSAM that had been uploaded online, depicting children under the age of 10. Detectives said some of the children shown in the videos appeared to be under the age of 2.

Both boys and girls were shown in the videos, the report stated.

According to the report, Algaba provided some kind of admission after he was detained Friday, however his exact statement was redacted from the publicly released report.

Algaba was arrested on 21 counts of possession of sexual performance by a child.

As of Monday morning, he was being held at the Metrowest Detention Center. While Algaba was granted a $52,500 bond in connection with the case, the Nicaraguan national remains jailed on an immigration hold.

Police in Tredyffrin Township, Pennsylvania, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northwest of Philadelphia, were called to the home early Saturday for a report of a burglary in progress. When they arrived, they said the suspects had fled. The home was occupied at the time and no one was hurt, police said.

“Mr. Barkley and his family were not harmed during this incident,” police said in a news release. They released a photo of a white SUV, saying it may be involved in the break-in.

Police said they did not receive any other reports about break-ins in the area. Police were investigating the possibility that Barkley’s home was targeted.

The Chester County District Attorney's office is assisting in the investigation.

“We are asking the public to help us identify those responsible by checking any home security cameras for suspicious activity in the area” from early Saturday, the office said in a statement.

Police and the district attorney's office did not immediately respond to email and phone messages seeking comment Monday.

Phone messages seeking comment also were left with representatives of the Eagles and Barkley.

In May, Argentine police arrested two Chilean citizens suspected of being part of a transnational gang that orchestrated burglaries at the homes of well-known athletes, including stars from the NBA and NFL.

According to local police, the two were part of a crime ring that targeted the homes of prominent athletes in the U.S. and Argentina, including NFL stars Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce and former tennis player Juan Martín del Potro.

Targets also included the homes of NBA players Luka Doncic and Mike Conley Jr.

In 2024, the NFL issued a security alert to teams and the players’ union following the burglaries involving the homes of Mahomes and Kelce.

Barkley took a step back from his record-setting 2024 season when his 2,504 yards rushing in the regular season and playoffs were the most ever, as Philadelphia’s offense was less potent last season. He still managed to rush for 1,140 yards and scored nine total touchdowns.

Among the violations: mold growing on food, cooked chicken contaminated by flies, rodent and roach activity, food kept at unsafe temperatures, mold-like buildup inside an ice machine, unsanitary kitchen conditions, and one business operating without running water.

No restaurants in the Florida Keys were ordered shut last week. All of the establishments later reopened after an ordered cleanup and passing a follow-up inspection.

**ANDREAS CAFETERIA & COFFEE SHOP

16679 NE 19TH AVENUE

NORTH MIAMI BEACH

ORDERED SHUT 7/13

11 VIOLATIONS FOUND

“Rodent activity present as evidenced by rodent droppings found. Observed 20+ rodent droppings on the floor at the front counter behind hand washing sink.”

“Dead roaches on premises. Observed 1 dead roach on the floor by the entrance of the bathroom in the kitchen.”

“Worn, torn and/or soiled floors/carpeting. Observed floor soiled in the kitchen hallway. Observed floor around the hot water heater and bathroom soiled. Observed front counter floor behind handwashing sinks heavily soiled.”

“Stop Sale issued on time/temperature control for safety food due to temperature abuse. Observed raw shell egg (52F - Cold Holding) stored in the walk in cooler overnight. Stop sale issued. Repeat Violation.”

“Required employee training expired for some employees.”

**QUATES MEXICAN RESTAURANT

3701 NORTH ANDREWS AVE.

OAKLAND PARK

ORDERED SHUT 7/16

14 VIOLATIONS FOUND

“Food with mold-like growth. Cooked pork stored in walk in cooler with mold like growth. Stop Sale”

“Roach activity present as evidenced by live roaches found. Observed approximately 1 live roach behind wall mounted internet router on wall in ware washing area. Observed approximately 3 live roaches inside of gasket of cook line flip top cooler on cook line in kitchen. Observed approximately 2 live roaches inside of control panel on top of dish machine in ware washing area. Observed 1 live roach on ground under three compartment sink in kitchen.”

“Roach excrement and/or droppings present. Observed accumulation of roach excrement around wall mounted internet router on wall in ware washing area.”

“Dead roaches on premises. Observed 3 dead roach on ground in prep area next to kitchen area. Observed 1 dead roach in hand wash sink in prep area Observed 3 dead roaches on ground in walk in cooler. Observed 2 dead roaches on ground under storage rack in kitchen Observed approximately 10 dead roaches in control device located behind ansul tank on wall on cook line in kitchen Observed 1 dead roach on ground at front counter not in kitchen Observed 1 dead roach inside of 2 door stainless reach in cooler in kitchen. Observed 2 dead roaches inside of door frame/on hinge at 2 door stainless reach in cooler in kitchen. Observed approximately 5 dead roaches inside of control panel on top of dish machine.”

“Stop Sale issued on time/temperature control for safety food due to temperature abuse. Time/temperature control for safety food cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit. cooked beef (47F); cooked rice (49F); refried beans (48F); cooked white rice (48F); raw chicken (47F). Per operator items have been in unit overnight.”

“Time/temperature control for safety food, other than whole meat roast, hot held at less than 135 degrees Fahrenheit. oven: cooked rice (120F-130F - Hot Holding) being held inside of oven with no temperature control. Operator states rice was reheated approximately 1.5 hours ago, operator reheated to 165F and put in steam table. Repeat Violation.”

“Cutting board has cut marks and is no longer cleanable. Cook line cutting board has cut marks and is no longer cleanable Repeat Violation.”

“Interior of microwave has accumulation of black substance/grease/food debris.”

“Food manager certification expired.”

“Handwash sink not accessible for employee use at all times. Multiple items stored in prep area hand wash sink.”

RE-INSPECTION 7/17

“Observed approximately 9 live roaches in establishment.”

“Observed approximately 5 dead roaches in establishment.”

**ASAHI RESTAURANT

9240 WEST COMMERCIAL BLVD.

SUNRISE

INSPECTION BASED ON COMPLAINT

ORDERED SHUT 7/15

20 VIOLATIONS FOUND

ALSO ORDERED SHUT 4/28/25 (ROACH ISSUE)

“Food contaminated by live flying insects . See stop sale. Observed 4 live flying insects at food preparation station landing on precooked chicken.”

“Live, small flying insects found. -Observed 4 live flying insects at food preparation station landing on precooked chicken. -Observed approximately 10 live flying insects in dishwashing area landing on clean food containers and food preparation table. -Observed 5 live flying insects in storage area landing on container with cornstarch. -Observed 2 live flying insects at cook line landing on in-used cutting board.”

“Accumulation of dead or trapped birds, insects, rodents, or other pests, in control devices. Observed accumulation of dead flying insects on fly traps in kitchen.”

“Wall soiled with accumulated grease, food debris, and/or dust. Observed walls throughout kitchen soiled with accumulation of black mold like substances and old food residues.”

“Employee washed hands with no soap.”

“Employee washed hands in a sink other than an approved handwash sink. Observed employee wash his hands at dishwashing machine sprayer and then continue to engage in food preparation without changing.”

“Handwash sink used for purposes other than handwashing. Observed food container stored inside hand wash sink next to cook line.”

**EL RANCHO BAKERY AND RESTAURANT

6023 KIMBERLY BLVD.

NORTH LAUDERDALE

ORDERED SHUT 7/15

19 VIOLATIONS FOUND

“Roach activity present as evidenced by live roaches found. 1 live roach on dry storage rack next to cans of corn at end of cook line next to exit door. 5 live roaches seen crawling in the crease of wall behind chest freezer in ware washing area. 1 live roach under shelf where dry beans are stored at the end of cook line next to exit door.”

“Dead roaches on premises. One dead roach under dry storage rack next to exit door.”

“Cooked/heated time/temperature control for safety food not cooled from 135 degrees Fahrenheit to 41 degrees Fahrenheit within 6 hours. Observed in walk in cooler , two buckets of black beans cooling covered overnight in deep bucket , cooked beans container #1 (51F - Cooling ),container #2 (52F - Cooling). Per operator items were held in unit overnight exceeding 6 hours. See stop sale.”

“Cooked/heated time/temperature control for safety food not cooled from 135 degrees Fahrenheit to 70 degrees Fahrenheit within two hours and from 135 degrees Fahrenheit to 41 degrees Fahrenheit within six hours. See stop sale. Cooked/heated time/temperature control for safety food not cooled from 135 degrees Fahrenheit to 41 degrees Fahrenheit within 6 hours. Observed in walk in cooler , two deep buckets of black beans cooling covered overnight cooked beans container #1 (51F - Cooling ), container #2 (52F - Cooling). Per operator items were held in unit overnight exceeding 6 hours.”

“Employee began working with food, handling clean equipment or utensils, or touching unwrapped single-service items without first washing hands. Observed operator came to work, put on gloves and went to cook line to start making orders without washing hands. Educated operator on proper hand washing procedures . Operator washed hands and put on new pair of gloves.”

“No currently certified food service manager on duty with four or more employees engaged in food preparation/handling.”

“Proof of required state approved employee training not available for some employees.”

**LAS CARNITAS LATIN CUISINE

3305 NORTH FEDERAL HIGHWAY

POMPANO BEACH

ORDERED SHUT 7/17

12 VIOLATIONS FOUND

“Dead roaches on premises. 1. One dead roach observed under clean utensil rack in ware washing area. 2. Approximately 30 dead roaches observed on glue board monitor under microwave at front counter.”

“Live, small flying insects found 1. Observed approximately 20 live, small flying insects resting on wall around dish machine in ware washing area. 2. Observed 2 live, small flying insects resting on breadcrumbs container at storage rack in kitchen. 3. Observed 2 live, small flying insects resting on wall next to cookline in kitchen. 4. Observed 1 live, small flying insects resting on cup stored on top of microwave at front counter. 5. Observed 4 live, small flying insects resting on shelf and on single service Styrofoam food containers in kitchen. 6. Observed 6 live, small flying insects resting inside cabinet space for and on bottled drink mixes at front counter.”

“Interior of microwave has accumulation of black substance/grease/food debris opposite cookline in kitchen.”

“Accumulation of black/green mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine.”

“Ceiling tiles and vents soiled with accumulated food debris, grease, dust, or mold-like substance in kitchen.”

“Nonfood-contact surface soiled with grease, food debris, dirt, slime or dust. 1. Observed on door gaskets at both three door reach in coolers opposite cookline in kitchen. Repeat Violation.”

**SWEET BUBBLE

20505 S. DIXIE HIGHWAY

CUTLER BAY

ORDERED SHUT 7/16

11 VIOLATIONS FOUND

“Live, small flying insects found observed 5 live flies flying around the booth and landing on 3 compartment sink and clean equipment.”

“Food-contact surfaces not sanitized after cleaning, before use. Do not use equipment/utensils not properly sanitized. At the time of the inspection there is not running water at the 3 compartment sink. As per employee they run out of water since last week. Establishment has been closed since Monday.”

“Floor soiled/has accumulation of debris. Observed under 3 compartment sink.”

“Establishment operating with no potable running water. Observed establishment does not have water at the time of the inspection. As per employee the establishment has not running water since last Sunday.”

“No running water at three-compartment sink. Observed not running water at the time of the inspection. As per operator since last Sunday. Establishment has been closed since Sunday. They opened today.”

“Water with a temperature of least 85 degrees Fahrenheit not provided/shut off at employee handwash sink. Observed there is not cold neither hot water at the hand wash sink at the time of the inspection.”

Las esperanzas de encontrar a los pasajeros y tripulantes desaparecidos empiezan a desvanecerse, y el primer ministro Mark Phillips dijo a los periodistas la noche del domingo que las autoridades creen que a bordo del ferry, de varias décadas de antigüedad, había muchas más personas que las 116 registradas como pasajeros y los 17 miembros de la tripulación documentados.

Los pasajeros se han quejado durante años de que empleados venden asientos de manera extraoficial a amigos y conocidos por dinero en efectivo sin incluirlos en la lista de pasajeros, una práctica que ha continuado durante décadas en muelles estatales.

Phillips también indicó que el capitán rescatado y al menos otro miembro de la tripulación dieron positivo a marihuana y permanecen bajo custodia policial a la espera de una investigación penal.

El MV Barima naufragó frente a la costa de Essequibo a última hora del sábado cuando se dirigía de la capital, Georgetown, a Port Kaituma, en el noroeste de Guyana, cerca de Venezuela. Sólo se han encontrado 10 cuerpos.

El primer ministro afirmó que el gobierno está iniciando una investigación urgente e integral, centrada, entre otros asuntos, en la exactitud de la lista de pasajeros, la carga de mercancías, el cumplimiento de las normas de seguridad y la conducta del capitán y la tripulación antes de zarpar.

“Permítanme ser absolutamente claro: cuando se establezca negligencia, mala conducta o un delito penal, los responsables enfrentarán todo el peso de la ley”, sostuvo. “No habrá excepciones ni tolerancia para decisiones que pusieron en riesgo vidas inocentes”.

El presidente Irfaan Ali viajó a la ciudad norteña de Mabaruma para reunirse con sobrevivientes y familias afectadas por el desastre.

“Seguiremos trabajando estrechamente con cada familia afectada, brindando el apoyo y la asistencia necesarios durante este difícil período”, afirmó.

El ministro de Obras Públicas, Juan Edghill, se dijo devastado por el peor desastre marítimo en décadas y por los últimos acontecimientos.

“Tenemos tolerancia cero con que miembros de la tripulación beban o fumen cuando están trabajando. Y que tengamos pruebas positivas del capitán, esto es grave”, expresó. “La vida de las personas está en riesgo, y esos asuntos se abordarán”.

Edghill reconoció que las autoridades no saben cuántas personas iban a bordo del ferry porque la lista del manifiesto no es precisa.

“Nadie, por el afán de unos cuantos dólares extra, puede engañar a un sistema y comprometer toda la operación de búsqueda y rescate”, sostuvo. “Enfrentarnos a la realidad de que, pese a un manifiesto oficial que se nos entregó, personas que fueron rescatadas no estaban registradas, eso es una medida criminal”.

Las embarcaciones y los ferris se usan mucho en toda Guyana, un país densamente boscoso con escasos sistemas de carreteras en su interior. Muchos que utilizan ferris lo hacen porque las tarifas de carga son más baratas en comparación con el flete aéreo que cobran aerolíneas nacionales que ofrecen vuelos diarios a comunidades del interior.

Varios pasajeros dijeron en redes sociales que el agua se estaba filtrando en el área de carga al momento en que el MV Barima avanzaba con dificultad por la costa del Atlántico Norte en su ahora fatídico viaje hacia Port Kaituma.

La embarcación, construida hace más de 80 años, entró por última vez a dique seco para reparaciones mayores en 2024 y tenía previstas reparaciones mayores adicionales en octubre.

___

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

D.C. Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman scheduled the Sept. 28 trial date for David Hearn during a hearing on Monday. It was Hearn's second court appearance since a grand jury indicted him on a felony count of property destruction.

Hearn, who pleaded not guilty to the charge on July 9, has asked the court to dismiss the case. In a court filing, his attorneys argued the government has failed to properly preserve important physical evidence from the Reflecting Pool.

At least three other people have been charged in the same court with misdemeanors for allegedly removing pieces of paint from the Reflecting Pool. The felony charge against Hearn, which accuses him of causing at least $1,000 in damage to the pool, carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years upon conviction.

Trump ordered the pool's renovation work ahead of the country’s 250th independence celebrations, but the project has been plagued by problems. Trump initially suggested that pool renovations would cost $1.5 million, but the cost of the project has exceeded $16 million.

Trump, a Republican, has claimed that vandals have damaged the pool, but administration critics attribute the problems to shoddy repair work. Hearn and his supporters claim his prosecution is a politically motivated attempt by the Trump administration to deflect blame and scapegoat him and others for their own failures.

Workers recently drained the pool again, prompting Hearn's attorneys to argue that the government was destroying evidence of his innocence.

“The Constitution simply does not permit the government to charge a man with destroying an object, retain exclusive custody of that object, and then drain, disturb, and alter the object before the defense may examine it, despite a written demand for its preservation. And yet that is what has happened here,” they wrote in their dismissal request.

Hearn, 67, previously told The Associated Press that he was detained by National Guard troops and U.S. Park Police for five hours after stopping by the pool during a bike ride on June 19. He said that he reached in to examine the pool's newly peeled coating and briefly touched a chunk attached to the side of the pool but that he obeyed a park worker who told him to let go of it.

Hearn, who's from 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.

Andrew Arrabaca, 43, went to the building known as 26 Federal Plaza “armed with bad intentions,” made “anti-government and anti-American statements” as he was being arrested, and told investigators he didn’t care if he killed people, said James Barnacle, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York field office.

“The building was attacked,” Barnacle said at a news conference on the street where the incident occurred. “Mr. Arrabaca was looking to injure people and harm people.”

Among the injured was a person who had an immigration court hearing at the building, which also houses offices for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the FBI and other federal agencies. The building has been a hub of protests against President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

No charges had been announced against Arrabaca as of Monday evening. The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force is investigating, though Barnacle declined to classify the attack as an act of terrorism. It was not immediately clear if Arrabaca had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf.

Arrabaca showed up outside 26 Federal Plaza around 8:30 a.m. wearing a military-style helmet and hauling a cart affixed with a sign that said “ICE Off Our Streets," New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. His last known address was in Harlem, Tisch said, though he has also lived in Poughkeepsie — about 69 miles (111 kilometers) north of the city.

According to Barnacle, Arrabaca poured gasoline on the ground outside an employee entrance and ignited it with a lighter and a large firework, which also caught fire. He then pulled out an airsoft rifle and fired five to seven pellets at the building before two Federal Protective Service officers and a security contractor ran up and took him into custody, Barnacle said.

Arrabaca, who repaired Patriot missile systems while in the Army from 2001 to 2005, “yelled derogatory terms” and “used bad words” about ICE as he was being arrested, Barnacle said.

“He is an anti-American, anti-government extremist,” Barnacle said. “We know that from what he said. We know that from what he said postarrest. And we know that from his actions that he tried to take today.”

Tisch, citing security video, offered a slightly different sequence of events. She said Arrabaca first lit a bundle of fireworks and then, as they began to smoke, pulled the pellet gun from his coat and fired at the building. Then, she said, he grabbed an orange bucket from his cart, dumped a flammable liquid near some bushes lining the building's perimeter and started a fire.

Videos and photos from the scene showed a fire on the sidewalk outside the building with a plume of smoke, as well as officers restraining a person and taking them away.

An initial 911 call reported an active shooter, Tisch said. Subsequent calls reported an explosion and a man setting off fireworks, she said. In addition to the pellet gun, Barnacle said, Arrabaca had two axes, three fixed-blade knives, a hammer and a machete.

Two government employees and a civilian, the person going to immigration court, were injured. The Department of Homeland Security, which runs the Federal Protective Service and ICE, said a bystander was grazed by the fireworks. A security officer who tackled Arrabaca sustained minor injuries, the agency said. The New York City Fire Department said one person was taken to a hospital with injuries that were not life threatening.

“What occurred outside 26 Federal Plaza this morning was deeply disturbing,” New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said on social media. “I’m relieved no one was seriously injured and that a suspect is in custody.”

The building, where agents have carried out chaotic and sometimes violent arrests in the hallway as migrants leave hearings, is in a cluster of government buildings and courthouses in Lower Manhattan, a few blocks from City Hall, NYPD headquarters and the Brooklyn Bridge.

Security at 26 Federal Plaza was increased dramatically in the 1990s after it was revealed that followers of Egyptian sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman had included the building in a list of five New York City landmarks that were targeted for bombings. A bulletproof security booth was installed and a street outside the building’s parking garage was closed to most vehicular traffic. ___

Stengle reported from Dallas. Associated Press reporters Eric Tucker in Washington and Larry Neumeister in New York contributed to this report.

The WTA updated its women’s eligibility policy to include gender screening “based on biological sex” this week “to preserve the integrity of women’s professional tennis and maintain fair competition conditions for all players.”

The new policy takes the organization in line with the eligibility policy introduced by the International Olympic Committee in March to align with U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order on sports ahead of the 2028 Games.

The WTA is complying with what is effectively an order from the IOC that Olympic sports bodies are following, though it remained unclear how many, if any, transgender women are competing at Games level.

Players are to be tested for the SRY gene, a segment of DNA typically found on the Y chromosome that initiates male sex development in utero and indicates the presence of testes.

“In this policy, ‘biological male’ means an individual who, regardless of their legal sex or gender identity, has an SRY gene and therefore has or previously had testes or streak testes; and ‘biological female’ means an individual who, regardless of their legal sex or gender identity, has no SRY gene and therefore has or previously had ovaries or streak ovaries.”

The WTA said the policy distinguishes between biological sex and gender identity, and that there is “no intent to disrespect or question the gender identity or the dignity of any person.”

The mandatory gender screening — already conducted by the governing bodies of track and field, skiing and boxing — has been criticized by human rights experts and activist groups.

___

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

El sistema sigue débil y desorganizado —luchando contra adversarios ambientales como la cizalladura del viento y el aire seco— con apenas tormentas eléctricas esporádicas y dispersas cerca de su incipiente centro.

Sin embargo, las caídas de presión lentas pero constantes reportadas por un avión cazahuracanes de la Reserva de la Fuerza Aérea que investigaba la depresión temprano el lunes indican que la circulación en superficie se está organizando, al menos de forma gradual. Solo hace falta un ligero aumento en los vientos estimados en superficie (de 35 mph a 40 mph) para llegar a la tormenta tropical Bertha, algo que debería ocurrir en la tarde de hoy.

En cuanto a su trayectoria, el pronóstico es bastante claro: un avance lento hacia el oeste esta semana, por debajo de una cresta de alta presión que se extiende hacia el norte del Golfo desde el centro de EE.UU.

No se espera un fortalecimiento significativo

El pronóstico para la futura Bertha está lleno de obstáculos que deberían frenar su fortalecimiento en los próximos días. Casi toda la guía confiable de intensidad mantiene al sistema sin superar por mucho la categoría de tormenta tropical de nivel bajo a medio, y solo alrededor del 3% de los escenarios del sistema de ensamble de 1,000 miembros de Google DeepMind muestran a Bertha alcanzando fuerza de huracán.

Si uno pasa suficiente tiempo en internet, encontrará a gente malintencionada compartiendo modelos computarizados atípicos que muestran escenarios aterradores de huracanes. Estos modelos rebeldes suelen tener un historial pésimo con los huracanes (como el ICON alemán) o no están diseñados para pronosticarlos y no deberían usarse con ese fin (como el RRFS).

Así que, aunque las vigilancias de tormenta tropical se extienden por partes de la costa norte del Golfo, desde el Panhandle de Florida hasta la costa de Alabama, en anticipación de vientos superiores a 38 mph, por ahora no se esperan vientos dañinos generalizados en estas zonas.

Las lluvias más fuertes se mantienen mar adentro, por ahora

Los principales peligros serán las lluvias localmente fuertes y las peligrosas corrientes de resaca a medida que la tormenta se deslice hacia el oeste a lo largo del centro-norte del Golfo esta semana.

Las lluvias más intensas dependerán de la trayectoria exacta de la futura Bertha, y los mayores acumulados se mantendrán en el lado sur de su recorrido, que en gran parte permanece mar adentro esta semana. Un desvío hacia el norte podría traer acumulados más fuertes sobre tierra, así que habrá que vigilar las tendencias.

Por el momento no se espera una amenaza de inundaciones generalizada, sino principalmente inundaciones localizadas por las bandas exteriores de movimiento más lento alrededor del sistema, a lo largo del centro-norte del Golfo hasta el jueves. El mayor riesgo de inundaciones repentinas dispersas llegará entre la noche del martes y el jueves, desde el sur de Louisiana hasta el sureste de Texas.

Las cálidas aguas del Golfo, bajo control

El factor que más favorece la organización del sistema son las temperaturas del agua, cercanas a niveles récord para esta época del año en el norte del Golfo. Esto se discutió ampliamente en el boletín del miércoles pasado, cuando era el desenlace menos probable:

“Es la trayectoria hacia el oeste sobre el norte del Golfo la que lo dejaría sobre aguas con temperaturas récord o cercanas al récord, y el escenario que plantearía la posibilidad de un desarrollo puramente tropical”.

Ese notable giro hacia el oeste de los modelos durante el fin de semana ahora mantiene al sistema sobre esas aguas inusualmente cálidas esta semana.

La buena noticia son todos los factores limitantes que están frenando su desarrollo en esta parte del Golfo. Para el miércoles, especialmente, una cortina de cizalladura del norte y la interacción con tierra deberían empezar a desarmar lo que quede de la tormenta a medida que se acerque a Louisiana.

Lo único en el radar, por ahora

En el resto del Atlántico, especialmente en los trópicos profundos, todo apunta a que la calma se mantendrá hasta finales de julio, sin desarrollo adicional esperado en ninguna otra zona durante la próxima semana o dos.

“They’re real,” Greg Sankey said Monday of talks with school presidents involving the SEC separating itself from the rest of the NCAA. “They’ve opined about the frustrations that bring them to the point of saying we should look at something significantly different.”

Sankey's 45-minute meeting with reporters to kick off SEC football media days detailed the several issues that college sports is trying to find solutions for: Congressional legislation, litigation stemming from the new five-year eligibility rule, the future of the College Football Playoff and an overall lack of transparency regarding name, image and likeness payments to players.

Sankey acknowledged the conference's unhappiness with the handling of all those issues, but also touted the league's 13 national championships won last season across a variety of sports as a key reason it's in no rush to move away from the current framework.

“There is meaning and value and I do think a national expectation that we participate in a national organization,” he said. “But that national organization must function in a healthy manner; otherwise, that simmering will continue”.

The SEC and Big Ten produced a 10-point paper about changes they would like to see to the Protect College Sports Act, a bipartisan piece of legislation in the Senate. The SEC and Big Ten are negotiating with lawmakers over potential tweaks.

Tennessee chancellor Donde Plowman, the chair of the SEC presidents, released a statement saying conference leaders “have provided feedback from the perspective of university leaders who are trying to navigate the current state of college athletics.”

The SEC argues the bill does not go far enough in limiting the possibility of lawsuits against conferences and schools, and also needs better language to preempt state laws in favor of a national one regarding the tens of millions in NIL payments now so common at the top of college sports.

Sankey called the rollout of the recent NCAA rule that rewrote eligibility standards and has induced lawsuits — players mainly get five years to play five seasons — “magnifies frustration" among some in the SEC. Plowman said the SEC “applauded” how transfers and eligibility were addressed in the Senate bill.

“That means student-athletes would not be able to transfer every year, putting their educations and team dynamics at risk — or toggle back and forth between professional teams and university teams with no intention of getting a degree,” she said.

The SEC remains the Power Four's only holdout over expanding the 12-team playoff to 24. Sankey said more research is needed, especially regarding “media interest” — likely shorthand for media rights interest — in adding more games.

There is also the underlying issue of what an expanded playoff would do to conference title games. Symbolic of the wide range of opinions on that topic, Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz said in his own media session that he favored conference play-in games to determine CFP spots and he doesn't think title games should be put on the chopping block.

“Throwing those away so you can get a bad matchup between 24 and 18 doesn't make sense to me,” Drinkwitz said.

Sankey said he also wants more transparency about who pays players and for what. Among the SEC's proposed changes to the Senate bill would be clearer guidelines for paying players, including “NIL, pay-for-play (which is not allowed), revenue sharing and other forms of compensation.”

The commissioner conceded that the SEC is not bent on getting its way regarding every issue that college sports is trying to solve. But as one of the biggest, richest and most influential leagues in a quickly changing business, it does want to lead the way.

“I think we do a better job now than has ever been done in college athletics,” Sankey said. “But we haven't achieved that level of stability as we go through change that's needed at this point.”

___

AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

Marionneaux is the owner of Sweet Revolution, where she creates everything from giant cookies and custom cakes to fresh-made beignets, all with recipes rooted in memories of her grandmother.

“I got baking from my grandmother,” Marionneaux said. “She was the cake lady in the neighborhood.”

Although her grandmother has since passed away, Marionneaux says she continues to inspire her every day.

“She’s not still with us. But I know she’s really proud of me. I know she’s smiling down on me every day. So it feels really good to continue what she started,” she said.

That passion eventually led Marionneaux to make a life-changing decision.

She left another career behind in Chicago and moved to Miami without friends or family, taking a job as a cake artist at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach.

“I moved here to Miami on a whim,” she said. “No friends and family. I got a job here at the Fontainebleau as a cake artist. And I didn’t know anyone here in the city.”

Since then, Marionneaux says both her career and confidence have grown.

“I tell people, if you want to do something, do it within reason. But do it,” she said. “It’s never going to be the right time. You’re never going to have enough money. You’re never going to have this. If you’re waiting on those things.”

Today, Sweet Revolution puts a South Florida spin on classic desserts by incorporating tropical flavors into cakes, cookies and beignets.

Marionneaux’s fresh beignets even drew comparisons to the famous pastries served in New Orleans.

Her cakes have also become a customer favorite, earning praise for their homemade taste and soft texture — a tribute, Marionneaux says, to the lessons she learned from her grandmother.

Sweet Revolution currently operates out of The Creamery at Red Rooster Overtown, where Marionneaux says customers can always expect something new.

“I love doing it. It’s a passion of mine,” she said. “I’m open to new things, new flavors. Come stop by The Creamery. You never know what kind of cake flavors we’re going to have.”

Sweet Revolution is open Saturdays and Sundays from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. Customers can also place custom orders by contacting the bakery through its Instagram page, @sweetrevolution20.

His death was announced Monday by former club Newcastle, where he had been both a player and coach. Keegan revealed last month that he had stage four cancer.

“One of the most iconic, influential and deeply loved figures in our club’s history,” Newcastle said.

For a time in the 1970s, Keegan transcended the English game with his celebrity status.

Keegan, one of just four Englishmen to win the Ballon d’Or, wasn’t just a brilliant soccer player who dovetailed nimbleness and an eye for goal with a relentless hunger and work rate stemming from his working-class upbringing in northern England.

He was also a trendsetter off the field, through his haircut — a perm, which other footballers across Europe started to copy — and his move into celebrity culture that saw him release a single, appear in an after-shave ad with heavyweight boxing great Henry Cooper, and go on TV shows.

Keegan was also something of a trailblazer in his sport as one of the first English players to move to a continental team when he left Liverpool, where he’d just won the European Cup, for German club Hamburger SV in 1977.

“For Hamburg fans he will remain above all a crowd favorite, an exceptional player, and one of the best footballers ever to wear the rhombus (crest) on his chest,” the Bundesliga club said.

It was in Hamburg where Keegan won the Ballon d’Or — then called the European Footballer of the Year award — in 1978 and 1979 and featured in another European Cup final, a 1980 loss to Nottingham Forest.

Keegan scored 21 times in 63 games for England and played at the 1982 World Cup, his only appearance on soccer’s biggest stage after the country failed to qualify in 1974 and 1978.

Coaching career

His 16-year coaching career from 1992-2008 was memorable for almost leading Newcastle, the team where he retired as a player, to the Premier League title in 1995-96, only for a late-season collapse which included Keegan’s unforgettable outburst of “I’d love it if we beat them, love it” in a nod toward Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United — the eventual champion.

He then showed more vulnerability in a 20-month spell in charge of England in 1999 and 2000, during which the team failed to get out of its group at the 2000 European Championship before Keegan resigned after the first game of World Cup qualifying — a 1-0 home loss to Germany in the last game at the old Wembley Stadium.

He announced his departure to Football Association officials in an emotional chat in a toilet cubicle.

Born in Doncaster on Feb. 14, 1951, Keegan first played for fourth-tier Scunthorpe in the English league before joining Liverpool in 1971 and, under iconic manager Bill Shankly, immediately forging a strong on-field relationship with John Toshack in a “big man, little man” strike partnership.

Keegan, 5-feet-8 (1.73 meters) and affectionately nicknamed “Mighty Mouse,” fed off the knockdowns and presence of the tall and slender Toshack.

That combination propelled the Reds to an English league-UEFA Cup double in 1973, and Keegan won two more league titles (1976 and 1977), an FA Cup (1974), another UEFA Cup (1976) when he scored in both legs of the final against Club Brugge, and the big one — the European Cup in 1977 — in a trophy-laden stint at Anfield.

“His legacy at Liverpool will be forever etched in history,” the club said. “He was regarded as a hero wherever he went.”

In that 1977 final, Keegan won the penalty — given after he was fouled by Berti Vogts — that was converted by Phil Neal to seal a 3-1 win over Borussia Mönchengladbach.

Hamburg heights

It was widely reported that Keegan then became European soccer’s highest-paid footballer when he joined Hamburg, whose players were initially resentful of the Englishman arriving on big money. He won them round and captured his first Ballon d’Or in 1978 — despite Hamburg only finishing 10th in the German league in his first season — and then helped the club win the title in 1979, with a reward being another Ballon d’Or.

“Hamburger SV will always cherish the memory of its former championship-winning player and two-time Ballon d’Or winner," the German club said.

Off the field, Keegan’s status soared. That year, he released “Head Over Heels in Love,” which finished higher in the singles’ charts in Germany (No. 10) than in England (No. 31), and opened up his home for a behind-the-scenes documentary following his life.

In his third season at Hamburg, the team lost the European Cup final and the Bundesliga to Bayern Munich, and Keegan returned to England with Southampton. There he was the English league’s top scorer with 30 goals in the 1981-82 season — his second and last at the club before moving to Newcastle, his father’s favorite team.

With his work rate and personality, Keegan was adored at St. James’ Park — setting the seed for his later coaching roles there — until he retired in the summer of 1984, though he did put his boots back on in 1985 for a couple of guest appearances for Australian team Blacktown in the Sydney suburbs.

England star

Keegan was a star player for England from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s, an underwhelming period for the national team when it failed to reach back-to-back World Cups (1974 and 1978) and the 1976 European Championship.

He was the captain for Euro 1980 when England didn’t get out of its group. His sole World Cup appearance came in the 1982 tournament, when he had a back problem and only came on as a second-half substitute in what proved to be the team’s final game.

In a coaching career that began in 1992, Keegan was regarded as tactically limited but a good man-manager — nowhere more so than in his first job at Newcastle, which he led out of the second tier and then almost to the Premier League title in the 1995-96 season.

In February, Newcastle led the league by 12 points and had picked up the nickname of “The Entertainers” under Keegan, but it collapsed in the run-in and was reeled in by Ferguson’s Man United.

In a post-match interview in the final weeks of the season, an emotional Keegan became unhappy at some comments from Ferguson — a master of the so-called “mind games” — and unleashed a finger-pointing outburst that ended with the words: “You can tell him now, we’re still fighting for this title. And he’s got to go to Middlesbrough and get something. And I’ll tell you ... honestly ... I will love it if we beat them, love it.”

Newcastle didn’t, finishing four points behind United in second place.

Either side of the England job, Keegan coached Fulham (1997-99) and Manchester City (2001-05). He also had another brief spell in charge of Newcastle in 2008, resigning after nine months following a breakdown in his relationship with club owner Mike Ashley.

Keegan never coached again but kept in the public eye with TV commentary work.

In early 2026, his family said he had been diagnosed with cancer, and Keegan himself said on stage at a live event a few months later that it was discovered when he had a scan for an operation following his involvement in a car crash.

“They said we have a top doctor with this new way of fighting what you have got, which is stage four cancer,” Keegan said. “He was a Liverpool supporter so I went to meet him. I knew I wouldn’t be walking alone.”

___

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

Según la policía de Plantation, la balacera fue reportada la tarde del sábado en un complejo de apartamentos en la cuadra 4200 de Northwest Fifth Street.

La policía dijo que los oficiales llegaron al lugar y encontraron a la víctima, cuya identidad fue censurada en el reporte de arresto del sospechoso, con múltiples heridas de bala.

“Los testigos en el lugar identificaron de inmediato al presunto tirador, quien fue puesto bajo custodia de manera segura por los oficiales que respondieron, sin incidentes”, indicó el Departamento de Policía de Plantation (PPD) en un comunicado.

La policía confirmó que la víctima fue trasladada por los paramédicos de Plantation Fire Rescue al Broward Health Medical Center, donde recibía tratamiento por heridas que no ponían en riesgo su vida.

Según la policía, los detectives descubrieron que dos hermanos habían tenido una discusión cuando uno de ellos, Eric Zavala, de 29 años, le disparó al otro en la mano izquierda y en la parte superior de la pierna izquierda mientras estaban en el patio trasero de su unidad de apartamento.

La policía dijo que Zavala regresó al lugar mientras atendían a su hermano.

De acuerdo con su reporte de arresto, Zavala admitió a la policía que su hermano estaba sentado en el patio trasero cuando él fue a confrontarlo por un encendedor nuevo que había desaparecido.

Zavala dijo que su hermano negó tener el encendedor, pero luego él lo vio en el patio, según las autoridades.

De acuerdo con el reporte, Zavala dijo que la discusión escaló y que su hermano amenazó con dispararle.

Contó que ambos intentaron agarrar el arma que estaba sobre una parrilla cercana y forcejearon por ella antes de que se produjera un disparo que hirió a su hermano en la mano y la pierna, según el documento.

De acuerdo con el reporte, Zavala dijo que le entregó el arma a una mujer que también vive en el apartamento antes de salir a caminar para calmarse.

Zavala fue arrestado bajo un cargo de agresión agravada con arma mortal.

Hasta la mañana del lunes permanecía recluido en la cárcel principal del condado de Broward bajo una fianza de $10,000.

Según un reporte de arresto de la Oficina del Alguacil de Miami-Dade, Douglas Algaba, de 40 años, tenía en su posesión 21 archivos de este material que habían sido subidos a internet y que mostraban a niños menores de 10 años. Los detectives dijeron que algunos de los menores que aparecían en los videos aparentaban tener menos de 2 años.

En los videos aparecían tanto niños como niñas, según el reporte.

De acuerdo con el documento, Algaba hizo algún tipo de admisión tras ser detenido el viernes; sin embargo, su declaración exacta fue censurada en la versión del reporte divulgada públicamente.

Algaba fue arrestado bajo 21 cargos de posesión de material de actuación sexual de un menor.

Hasta la mañana del lunes permanecía recluido en el Metrowest Detention Center. Aunque a Algaba se le concedió una fianza de $52,500 en relación con el caso, el ciudadano nicaragüense sigue encarcelado debido a una orden de retención migratoria.

Miami Beach fire rescue personnel took two people who suffered respiratory difficulties after the gas leak to the Mount Sinai Medical Center, according to police.

Miami Beach police officers reported responding shortly after 4:10 a.m. to the 8600 block of Harding Avenue after the Miami-Dade transit bus crashed at 315 86 Street in North Beach, near Surfside.

Police officers and fire rescue personnel evacuated residents and closed Harding Avenue and Collins Court in both directions from 85th to 88th streets and Byron Avenue’s westbound lanes, according to police.

This is a developing story. Local 10 News Assignment Editor Mariana Ortiz contributed to this report.

Traffic Alert: All NB & SB lanes along Harding Ave and Collins Ct between 85-88 Streets, as well as WB lanes on 86 St & Byron Ave are closed due to an accident. pic.twitter.com/tAnh7mfUbx

— Miami Beach Police (@MiamiBeachPD) July 20, 2026

Location

Los oficiales de la policía de Miami Beach informaron que acudieron poco después de las 4:10 a.m. a la cuadra 8600 de Harding Avenue, después de que el bus de tránsito de Miami-Dade se estrellara.

El bus chocó en el 315 de 86 Street, por lo que los oficiales de policía y el personal de rescate evacuaron la zona y cerraron Harding Avenue y Collins Court en ambos sentidos, desde la calle 85 hasta la 88, así como Byron Avenue a la altura de 86 Street, según la policía.

El personal de rescate trasladó a dos personas con dificultades respiratorias al Mount Sinai Medical Center.

Esta es una historia en desarrollo. La editora de asignaciones de Local 10 News, Mariana Ortiz, contribuyó a este reporte.

El sur de Florida no tendrá impactos directos del sistema esta semana, aunque se prevé que aire más seco se filtre detrás de él a mediados de semana.

Esta menor probabilidad de lluvias mantendrá las temperaturas por encima de lo normal, con valores del índice de calor acercándose cada tarde a los criterios de una Advertencia de Calor.

Hasta la mañana del lunes, la Depresión Tropical 2 se encontraba a unas 120 millas al sur de Panama City.

Se movía hacia el noroeste a 3 mph, con vientos máximos de 35 mph.

Se emitió una Vigilancia de Tormenta Tropical para la costa del Golfo en Alabama, desde la frontera con Florida hasta la frontera con Mississippi.

Spain’s World Cup victory on Sunday added to the nation’s long list of recent triumphs across men’s, women’s and youth competitions, highlighting the dominance of a system that has stuck to a tactical identity and the development of collective talent.

The men’s team is also the current European champion, the Olympic gold medalist and has reached the Nations League final twice — winning it once. The women’s squad is the defending World Cup champion and a two-time Women's Nations League winner. It also made it to the final of the 2025 European Championship.

Spain is the first nation to hold both the men’s and women’s World Cup titles at the same time and is the only country with two men’s World Cup triumphs this century. The nation also has won several youth tournaments in recent years with both the men’s and women’s teams.

The men’s senior squad has been racking up titles since it was gradually revamped after the demise of a golden generation that won the nation’s first World Cup in 2010 with the likes of Andrés Iniesta, Xavi Hernández, Sergio Ramos and Gerard Piqué.

Players such as Lamine Yamal, Pau Cubarsí, Rodri and Ferran Torres — the goal scorer in the 1-0 win over Argentina in Sunday’s final — now are the ones representing a new generation that has taken La Roja back to the top.

“I’m very emotional looking back,” Spain coach Luis de la Fuente said. “We’ve talked about it with the players; we have won everything, it’s wonderful … It’s a generation of players that has been an example for Spanish sports, for young Spaniards, for Spain. Together we are stronger.”

Spain hadn’t gone past the last 16 of the men’s World Cup since winning the title in South Africa in 2010. It has been in contention in nearly every competition it has played since De la Fuente’s arrival in 2022 and it's 38-match unbeaten streak is the longest in men’s international soccer.

Collective talent

Despite a very talented group of players, it has been Spain's collective performance that has impressed the most and the team hasn't had to rely on star players. It also has been thriving defensively, with a solid backline and a relentless pursuit to regain possession.

“We played against the best national squads in the world, but we were the best team in the world,” De la Fuente said. “I’m very proud of this generation of players. They have grown with this idea, they’ve been loyal to this idea, they have given us an example of a group, of a team, of a family. I’m very proud of them. It’s been an honor.”

How can other teams possibly replicate the Spanish system?

“Go to work,” former France player Thierry Henry, a commentator for Fox Sports, said after the final. “Think about how you want to go about it at every level and play the same way. This is why they are dominating world football on every level, men and women, it doesn't really matter, they go about it the same way.”

Youth-system success

The recent wave of success can be tracked to the surprise hiring of De la Fuente to replace Luis Enrique following the team’s elimination against Morocco in the round of 16 of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. De la Fuente was relatively unknown at the time, but the Spanish soccer federation knew him well.

By hiring him, Spain was actually betting on its youth system as De la Fuente had been coaching Spain’s younger national teams for some time.

He was well versed in the soccer federation’s process of instilling a tactical identity at all levels, from the bottom up and across men's and women's squads, allowing players from youth teams to go through a seamless transition to the main squads.

It was the case for players such as Yamal, Cubarsí, Nico Williams, Pedri and Gavi, who are among the youngsters set to keep Spain's men's team thriving for some time.

“When you look at everything that we've gone through, you realize how this process was important,” De la Fuente said. “Certainly, we wouldn't have been able to do what we did today if we hadn't gone through this process with these players. And it's not something that happened during this World Cup, it has been happening for several years.”

Tactical identity

Spain’s “tiki-taka” style of valuing ball possession and focusing on quick passing, which led to the 2010 World Cup title and victories at Euro 2008 and Euro 2012, had come under attack after the national team began to struggle.

Some said the style lacked efficiency, and a few coaches made some changes to it over time. But Spain never fully abandoned the idea of controlling ball possession to dominate games.

Part of De la Fuente’s success stemmed from his ability to get his squad to successfully mix ball possession and efficiency. And it showed as Spain led this year’s World Cup in both passing and attempts on goal.

Coaching prowess

De la Fuente's recent success quickly put him in the group of Spanish coaches who have been leading national teams and helping clubs thrive across the globe.

Pep Guardiola, Luis Enrique, Mikel Arteta, Unai Emery, Xabi Alonso and Roberto Martínez are among the successful coaches spreading Spanish tactics everywhere — another sign of the nation's prominence in global soccer.

“We are exactly where we want to be,” De la Fuente said. “We are privileged to represent a wonderful national team with exceptional players. But the real merit we have is to seek good travel companions, people with values and principles who make our lives easier and at the same time are very talented. We'll enjoy this now, because it’s historic, and then we will start thinking match by match again.”

___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

The announcement on Monday followed investigations into former football coach Sherrone Moore's relationship with his executive assistant and a probe into the athletic department.

“The broader culture review has identified serious concerns that require immediate action," interim school president Domenico Grasso said.

Michigan won this year's men's basketball title and the 2023 national championship in football under Manuel, but that wasn't enough for him to keep his job. Grasso said he asked Manuel to remain in his role through the end of the year.

“I am happy President Grasso asked me to stay on to work with him to implement the recommendations for continuous improvement,” Manuel said in a statement released by the athletic department. “I promise everyone I will have more to say about my decision at the appropriate time.”

The storied athletic department has been in turmoil for years, with scandal-tinged headlines jarringly alongside general excellence across most of the school's 27 teams in Division I and the Wolverines annually among the best in the powerhouse Big Ten. It got worse last December, when Manuel fired Moore following a law firm's investigation into a relationship he had with a subordinate.

The school later chose to widen the look into the department. A law firm was paid about $12 million to do the work and it interviewed nearly 300 people, including coaches, staff members, athletes and other stakeholders. The school said more than 90 people shared information via a hotline and 20,000-plus documents were reviewed during the investigations.

The athletic department review found problems with leadership accountability, organizational structure and a culture that didn't make employees and athletes feel comfortable raising concerns.

“The culture assessment is sobering,” Grasso said. “As a great university, we simply must do better.”

The school said the investigation did not find widespread misconduct. It also said the investigations did not identify any current employee with direct evidence of Moore's relationship with his executive assistant.

The 58-year-old Manuel, who played football for the Wolverines under the late Bo Schembechler and was on the track team, was hired to lead the department in 2016. He signed a contract extension at Michigan in 2024 that was set to run through June 2030, paying him a base salary of $1.9 million a year with opportunities to make more with bonuses and merit.

He led a department with an annual budget of about $250 million, 29 teams, 950-plus athletes and about 400 staff members.

The Wolverines won the national championship in football under former coach Jim Harbaugh, who later left to lead the Los Angeles Chargers, as a sign-stealing scandal loomed over the program and Moore's tenure.

The program is on NCAA probation and has seen many former staffers have run-ins with the law, including Matt Weiss, who is charged with hacking into the computer accounts of thousands of college athletes to find intimate images.

Michigan won it all in men's basketball earlier this year with coach Dusty May, who left to lead the NBA's Dallas Mavericks. Michigan also won men's and women's gymnastics national titles with Manuel as AD.

The National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame gave Manuel the John L. Toner Award in 2024, honoring him for demonstrating superior administrative abilities and dedication to college athletics, especially football. He represented Michigan and the Big Ten as member of the College Football Playoff Selection Committee and was chair during the 2004 season when the 12-team playoff format kicked off.

Manuel, who is from New Orleans, previously served as athletic director at UConn and Buffalo after working in Michigan's athletic department in various roles from 1996 to 2005.

Grasso said the school will conduct a national search for a new athletic director.

Potential candidates include three former Michigan athletes: Iowa Deputy Athletic Director Joe Parker, Big Ten Deputy Commissioner Diane Dietz and Katie Fraumann, a senior vice president at DePaul. Parker and Fraumann previously worked for Michigan's athletic department.

___

AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

Mientras Petro aseguraba que se trata de una despedida “transitoria”, la multitud respondía coreando “Y va a volver y va a volver, Gustavo Petro va a volver”, pese a que en Colombia está prohibida la reelección presidencial.

Su discurso sucedió en el marco de la conmemoración de la independencia de Colombia y la posterior instalación del renovado Congreso, en el que De la Espriella deberá buscar el apoyo de otros partidos para tener la mayoría.

La victoria de De la Espriella en el balotaje presidencial significó una derrota para Petro, quien respaldaba al senador oficialista Iván Cepeda, segundo en la reñida votación del 21 de junio.

Pese a que la autoridad electoral certificó la victoria de De la Espriella, Petro la desconoció e insistió en un supuesto fraude, sin mostrar evidencias.

“El pueblo de Colombia eligió como presidente a Iván Cepeda”, sentenció Petro, quien prometió divulgar en las próximas horas pruebas del presunto fraude e insistió en que el presidente estadounidense Donald Trump tuvo que ver en el triunfo de De la Espriella al apoyarlo.

“Será un sirviente de los gobernantes de Estados Unidos que lo ayudaron a elegir”, reprochó Petro.

La postura política de Petro significó un quiebre en la transición de gobierno oficial, que no ha tenido el transcurso normal de los preparativos para que De la Espriella asuma el poder.

El objetivo de Petro es “demostrar que es influyente, que no fue un desvanecer del gobierno, sino que esta es una izquierda que ha llegado para quedarse en la vida política colombiana”, aseguró el analista político Sergio Guzmán a The Associated Press.

Petro resaltó que el “pueblo” estaba representado en los miles de habitantes de barrios populares del sur de Bogotá que lo fueron a despedir.

“Petro es un gran ser humano... él ama al pueblo y el pueblo está en el sur, esto es histórico”, dijo a la AP conmovida Vanesa Bermudez, de 33 años, mientras sostenía un muñeco de peluche que representaba a Petro.

De la Espriella denunció el lunes que recibió información de inteligencia sobre un posible plan para atentar en su contra durante actividades públicas. La guerrilla Ejército de Liberación Nacional y las disidencias de la extinta guerrilla Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia habrían ofrecido dinero para ejecutarlo, agregó el comunicado.

El mandatario electo planea presionar a los ilegales con operaciones militares y suspender las mesas de diálogo de paz abiertas por Petro.

La conquista del Congreso

De la Espriella conquistó las urnas con su imagen de outsider al margen de los partidos tradicionales a los que criticó, aunque recibió su respaldo en la segunda vuelta.

Sin embargo, en el Congreso —donde los partidos tradicionales tienen considerable poder— el gobierno electo deberá tramitar iniciativas clave como el presupuesto estatal y el plan de desarrollo donde quedarán consignadas sus principales propuestas, entre ellas construir grandes cárceles al estilo de El Salvador.

Así que De la Espriella deberá lidiar con los partidos políticos tradicionales —especialmente los de perfil conservador con los que se negó a hacer una alianza durante la campaña— dado que el Movimiento Salvación Nacional que lo respaldó desde un inicio es minoritario.

Los 103 senadores y 183 representantes a la Cámara que inician su periodo el lunes por un periodo de cuatro años fueron elegidos en marzo en unas elecciones clave en las que, aunque ningún partido tiene la mayoría, la fuerza más votada en el Senado fue el Pacto Histórico de Petro. Por lo tanto, De la Espriella enfrentará una oposición robusta.

Cepeda, quien aceptó una curul en el Senado que es concedida al que quedó segundo en la votación presidencial, indicó que su oposición será de “desobediencia civil pacífica. Eso implicaría no seguir órdenes cuando considere que atentan contra los “principios constitucionales y derechos fundamentales de los colombianos”, según dijo a la prensa el viernes.

Petro pidió a sus seguidores alistarse para la “resistencia pacífica" y recurrir a las huelgas en caso de que De la Espriella intente quitar beneficios a los trabajadores, estudiantes y campesinos.

“Abelardo lejos de tener la mayorías, tampoco tiene control. Está bastante claro que los votos los va a tener que buscar, lo que implica que va a tener que negociar, hacer algunas concesiones que para él son incómodas e inusuales en su forma de pensar y de gobernar”, aseguró Guzmán.

La relación entre el Ejecutivo y el Legislativo en Colombia suele ser “transaccional”, explicó Guzmán, por lo que en el pasado gobiernos que querían tener independencia frente al Congreso tuvieron que “aguar su agenda o entrar a transar con burocracia”.

De entrada, la negociación entre el gobierno y las fuerzas políticas para elegir a los presidentes de Senado y Cámara mostró diferencias. Se vio especialmente con el Centro Democrático, de corte conservador y dirigido por el influyente expresidente Álvaro Uribe Vélez (2002-2010), que decidió ser oficialista pero aclaró que no pretende perder “independencia” frente al Ejecutivo.

This past Saturday, Cuba released artist and opposition leader Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara after serving five years in jail. Otero Alcantara was one of the leaders of the San Isidro movement that led to large protests across the island nation five years ago.

Upon arriving in Miami, Otero Alcantara thanked the Cuban American community for its support and asked Cuba to release all political prisoners in jail.

July 16 update: US Department of Defense pays $3 million to US personnel affected by Havana Syndrome

The U.S. Department of Defense has paid $3 million in compensation to U.S. personnel affected by the mysterious condition known as Havana Syndrome, making the first payment under the 2021 Havana Act.

Leer en español

Havana Syndrome first appeared in 2016 when U.S. diplomats and intelligence officers in Havana, Cuba reported unusual symptoms, including intense head pressure, dizziness, nausea, hearing disturbances and memory problems.

July 14 update: New U.S. sanctions increase pressure on Cuba’s military-run economy

The United States on Monday introduced new sanctions targeting companies controlled by GAESA, Cuba’s military economic conglomerate, as well as some of the military brigades responsible for suppressing protests like the ones we saw the other day.

How much longer can the Cuban government hold on? Information continues to reach U.S. officials indicating that there are sectors within the Cuban government that are increasingly concerned about how much longer they can survive without negotiating with the U.S. government before facing a complete collapse of their system.

July 10 update: Does Raul Castro’s grandson have the full authority to negotiate for the Cuban government?

As I expected, there seems to be a small crack within the inner circle of the Cuban government. Some have criticized Raulito (Raul Castro’s grandson) for offering to negotiate directly with President Trump. The criticism comes as to whether he has the full authority to negotiate for the Cuban government or is he just negotiating for the Castro family?

Yesterday, the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) backed Raulito’s efforts, but the military leadership has remained quiet.

July 8 update: United Nations has no legal right to lift U.S. embargo on Cuba

Every year, Cuba argues in front of the United Nations that the U.S. economic embargo is the cause for their economic problems. Each year, Cuba loses more support for their argument. The United Nations has no legitimate or legal right to lift the embargo. The U.S. Congress can only lift the embargo.

The Cuban government propaganda machine has failed. Most Cubans on the island, including economists on the island, blame the Cuban government for their current poor economic conditions.

July 6 update: Raul Castro’s grandson says Cuba is willing to negotiate with US

Reuters reported earlier this morning that Raul Castro’s grandson Raulito, known as “El Cangrejo,” announced that Cuba is willing to negotiate with the U.S. The question we need to ask ourselves is whether Raulito is negotiating on behalf of the Castro family or the Cuban government?

We know that Cuba has been selling some of their assets, including some belonging to the military economic conglomerate GAESA in the last couple of weeks. Cuba’s attempt to invite foreign investment has not attracted many takers for the fear of losing their money.

July 2 update: Cuba’s culture of fear complicates a Democratic transition

When we talk about Cuba, we usually concentrate on their centralized political and economic system. However, we fail to recognize that individuals that have lived under totalitarian regimes have had to survive under a culture of fear. Such system of government creates a psychological set of attitudes and values that help define the daily behavior in order to align the people’s wants and needs to the restrictions imposed by the government.

To break such behaviors could take years of psychological training and change. Therefore, transitioning a totalitarian state to support a transition to some form of a Democratic government could take time.

Dr. Andy S. Gomez’s June updates can be viewed by clicking here.

Dr. Andy S. Gomez is Local 10’s Cuba Analyst. Gomez is considered one of the leading scholars on Cuba. He worked in higher education for 32 years before retiring from the University of Miami in 2012.

But just as they move in to capture them, one of the football-size birds, with bright-orange bills and long legs, scampers into a coastal salt pond. The other briefly takes to the air, sending the team running across the mile-and-a-half-long (2.4-kilometer-long) beach in pursuit.

“There is a problem. They can fly,” Alan Kneidel, a senior conservation biologist with the environmental group Manomet Conservation Sciences, said as he watched the team go after the chicks.

Eventually, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists tracked down both birds. They bundled them each into white pillow cases and gingerly carried them to a sand dune where body measurements were taken and bands clipped onto their long, peach-colored legs.

Birds starting to recover

The banding in the 787-acre (318-hectare) Trustom Pond National Wildlife Refuge is part of a nationwide effort to restore the oystercatcher's population along the coasts of the Americas. The birds were largely wiped out in New England by the turn of the 20th century due to hunting and egg collecting but their numbers are rising.

About $10 million was raised over a decade and 35 coastal organizations in 16 states joined in the effort. Much of the campaign focused on educating beachgoers about the presence of the quirky birds known for their piercing calls and habit of using their razor sharp bills to crack open oysters and mussels. Measures were also implemented to protect their ground nesting sites from predators and pets on beaches, sand dunes, salt marshes or tide wrack deposits.

From 2008 to 2023, oystercatcher numbers increased by 45% along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Their recovery is especially significant, given a 2023 study found that most shorebird populations in North America were declining.

“It's amazing and it's a great conservation success story,” said Maureen Durkin, a federal wildlife biologist who led the banding effort and works at the Rhode Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex.

“It does really demonstrate how much you can accomplish when there is a dedicated group of partners that can come together and identify the needs of the species and implement conservation actions,” she said, adding that it also showed conserving imperiled species “is not easy and takes a sustained and committed effort.”

Targeting threats

Kneidel said a critical part of the conservation plan was determining that “chick survival was the big thing driving the declines.” Then, individually-tailored plans were drawn up from organizations in the American Oystercatcher Working Group, which was led by Manomet's Shiloh Schulte, a conservation biologist and field scientist who died last year in a helicopter crash in Alaska while on a mission to protect shorebirds. His initial aerial survey showed their numbers had declined by double-digits.

“At one site, it might be recreational disturbance, at another site it might be predators, at another site it might be sea level rise or loss of dune structure that’s causing overwash events that are causing nest failure,” Kneidel said as he walked along the rocky Moonstone Beach, the sky filled with squeaking, least terns.

On Martha’s Vineyard, a low-lying fence with chicken wire is installed seasonally at the entrance of a key breeding site for oystercatchers and other seabirds and shorebirds, which has kept skunks and raccoons that eat their eggs off the beach. Colorful signs have also been installed educating the public about oystercatchers.

Focused attention on oystercatchers

The birds also benefit from federal protections given to piping plovers, a threatened shorebird that nests in some of the same areas. During the nesting season of piping plovers, vehicles and dogs are limited or banned near beach nesting sites.

“With a little bit of focused effort and attention on this really charismatic bird, you can teach the public how to share the shore,” said Luanne Johnson, a wildlife biologist who founded the nonprofit BiodiversityWorks, one of the groups working on the oystercatcher's recovery. The island was the first place to have nesting oystercatchers in Massachusetts when they began to recover and has seen the numbers of breeding pairs increase 77% since 2009.

In South Carolina, nearly 30 breeding sites are roped off to protect nesting habitat. Georgia and North Carolina also rope off breeding sites along with trapping and euthanizing predators like foxes, raccoons and coyotes during breeding season.

“If you focus conservation efforts on a species, especially before it becomes endangered to the point that you’re considering listing, you can actually sort of head off trouble at the pass,” said Lindsay Addison, a coastal biologist with Audubon North Carolina, adding the state's breeding pairs have increased nearly 20% to 403. Some birds, like Dark Green 06 and Yellow 25, were banded as far back as 2004 and have become minor celebrities.

Ted Simons, a retired emeritus professor at North Carolina State University who began studying the birds on North Carolina’s Outer Banks in 1995, said their recovery was a testament to the species' resilience. He noted American oystercatchers have been found nesting on rooftops in the United States and other oystercatcher species in Europe are nesting in pastures and eating worms. One pair, he recalled, was found nesting in a bus station pothole in Iceland.

“If these were really highly specialized birds that needed an exact prescription for survival, that would have been harder,” Simons said. “But what we found is that these birds are incredibly adaptive.”

Climate change, weakened protections pose dangers

Despite their strong recovery, threats remain.

Chief among the dangers is climate change that has led to rising seas and erosion washing out oystercatcher nests. That has prompted states such as Georgia to build elevated nesting platforms of oystershells for the birds and use dredged material from shipping channels to create and maintain nesting islands. Along the Cape Fear River in North Carolina, Audubon is replenishing shell rakes — beds of old oyster shells where the oystercatchers nest.

“ Climate change, sea level rise, it’s a big challenge not only for oystercatchers but for all kinds of interests on the coast,” Addison said. “There’s going to be loss of habitat due to sea level rise so we have to make sure that we do what we can to provide the habitat that we can so they can get through this next bottleneck.”

There are also concerns that changes this month to the Endangered Species Act could impact nesting sites, especially where state protections are weak. Environmental groups, which sued Tuesday to block the changes, fear breeding grounds could be disturbed by everything from vehicle traffic to unchecked development.

The changes would allow oil and gas drilling, mining, logging and other development on critical wildlife habitats so long as the animals themselves aren’t killed or injured. Environmentalists warned the move could cause some species to go extinct by opening the door to habitat destruction.

“It's a direct attack on the protections that have allowed many of these shorebird species to recover,” Kneidel said.

___

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 Houthi military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said in a video statement that the maritime ban against Saudi Arabia will be effective immediately, describing it as an “equation of ‘an eye for an eye.’”

There were few details on how the embargo might work, but the deputy head of the Houthi media office, Nasruddin Amer, said on X that the Bab al-Mandeb strait will be closed to the Saudis in response to what he called the kingdom's "unjust blockade on Yemenis for over 10 years.”

Bab el-Mandeb, at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, is the gateway to the Red Sea through which around 12% of the world's trade usually passes. A fourth of global container trade transits through the 32-kilometer (20-mile)-wide strait to and from the Suez Canal.

The Houthis earlier demonstrated their ability to disrupt shipping there when they targeted ships for months over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, with over 100 vessels attacked. It is unclear whether the Houthis will resume that level of attack against neighboring Saudi Arabia.

There was no immediate response from Saudi Arabia. The kingdom already faced pressure as it uses its East-West Pipeline to the Red Sea as an alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, which remains in the grip that Iran imposed shortly after the U.S. and Israel attacked it on Feb. 28.

The Saudis have been sending millions of barrels of crude oil a day through the pipeline. Now, about 2.5 million barrels of oil per day could be at risk, Texas-based Rystad Energy wrote Monday.

Saudi Arabia leads a coalition against the Houthis and imposed an air and sea blockade on Yemen in 2015. Yemen’s civil war began in 2014 when the rebels seized the capital, Sanaa, and much of northern Yemen and forced the government into exile. A truce was reached in 2022.

That truce has been threatened in recent days after the Houthis said the Saudis struck the Sanaa airport in an attempt to affect a flight carrying Houthi leaders back from Iran, where they attended the funeral of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The plane landed safely at another airport.

The Houthis then launched missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia’s Abha International Airport in the most significant confrontation in years.

By allowing a direct international flight to land without the approval of the Saudi-led coalition, the Houthis sought to establish a new reality in which they could independently make decisions over Yemen’s airspace, experts told the AP.

“We affirm the right of our great people to respond to the blockade with a blockade,” Saree emphasized on Monday, adding that Houthis are prepared to confront “any foolish act committed by the reckless Saudi enemy ... with a comprehensive and decisive escalation."

Houthi-run Al Masirah TV broadcast footage of hundreds of supporters gathering in the city of Ibb, south of Sanaa, to back the embargo against Saudi Arabia. Similar rallies were held in the governorates of Saada, Marib, Hajjah and Taiz.

The Houthis are a crucial part of Iran’s so-called “Axis of Resistance,” which also includes militant groups in Lebanon, Iraq and the Palestinian territories.

The rebels have had a large stockpile of drones, but several Houthi members previously told the AP that the stockpile is running low after its attacks during the Israel-Hamas war. The Iran war has further impeded the flow of weapons, said the members, who at the time spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk to the media.

The U.S. and Israel responded to the Houthis' earlier attacks on shipping with a punishing air campaign across Houthi-held areas in Yemen until a deal that saw the rebels stop their assaults.

Disrupting transit through the Bab al-Mandeb forces shipping firms to route vessels around the Cape of Good Hope off South Africa, significantly increasing costs. The U.S. government in the past has said going around the cape would add about 2,700 miles (4,345 kilometers) to the journey from Saudi Arabia to the U.S.

___

Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed.

This could be the year of the algorithm.

The Belgian Grand Prix was more evidence of how code that the drivers don't fully understand is shaping — or distorting — the title fight.

Kimi Antonelli sped to his sixth win of the season and nearly doubled his lead, while his Mercedes teammate and title rival George Russell was left stuck in a gravel trap after colliding with Lewis Hamilton.

In an angry radio message to Mercedes, Russell demanded to know why he'd had an “unacceptable” loss of electrical power that dropped him back into a fight with Hamilton in the first place.

The big mystery

“The irony of the age; more knowledge than ever before in human history, yet even more mysteries,” 1996 champion Damon Hill commented on X over a video of Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff blaming a software issue affecting all cars with Mercedes engines.

“Got to feel for (Russell). What does he have to do? All a bit weird how his car is different to Kimi’s. They should be identical, performance wise. We will no doubt hear more of this anon,” Hill also posted.

On Saturday, Russell had complained of driving with “one hand behind my back” in qualifying after dropping straight-line speed to Antonelli for no clear reason. The team’s trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin called it “a clear loss that we cannot explain by driving style.”

Why the algorithms matter

F1's embrace of electrical power for 2026 means the hardware that makes up the car — the turbocharged engine, the tires, even the battery — only tells half the story.

The rest often isn't fully clear even to the drivers themselves. It's a world of algorithms and deployment maps which can suddenly slow a car down for what can seem, to the driver in the cockpit, like no reason at all.

Except for the optional boost button for overtaking, most of the time, algorithms release the power in a way that isn’t directly related to the driver’s use of the gas pedal. So-called “deployment maps” set out how much energy to release based on where the car is on the track.

Without the battery, the car runs at barely half power on its engine alone, a feeling Max Verstappen likened to driving a Formula 3 car.

That's how Russell fell back so sharply into the chasing pack containing Hamilton on Sunday, and seems to be why Antonelli briefly lost — then regained — the lead to Max Verstappen just before.

Uneven impact

Mercedes isn't the only team affected by unexpected power use this season, just the one with the biggest impact on the title fight. Within teams, some drivers, like Russell, seem to be affected more than others.

McLaren's Oscar Piastri has become a prominent critic of how computerized decision-making is affecting the results.

His season began with a power-deployment puzzle when Piastri couldn't even start his home race in Australia. On what should have been a routine, fairly gentle run to the grid, a sudden spike of power sent him spinning into the barriers.

For now, Russell just has to hope he gets on better with the boost at this week's Hungarian Grand Prix.

“Knocked down, we get back up. No matter how many times,” he posted on social media Monday. “So many tough moments this year but I will not stop fighting.”

___

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

The fine, the biggest ever imposed for breaches of the 27-nation European Union's Digital Services Act, comes just months after another online retailer, Temu, was fined 200 million euros for similar breaches. Last year, Brussels issued a $120 million penalty for Elon Musk’s social media site X.

“The spread of counterfeit clothing, unsafe toys, dangerous cosmetics and other illegal and harmful products is not an unavoidable cost of shopping online — it is a failure by AliExpress to comply with its obligations under the Digital Services Act,” Henna Virkkunen, the commission's executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, said in a statement.

“Scale is not an excuse; risks must be identified and addressed systematically to ensure consumers can safely shop online. Today, we are holding AliExpress to this standard and request it to take action,” she added.

In a comment emailed to The Associated Press, AliExpress said that since the DSA came into force the company “has been, and continues to be, firmly committed to meeting our obligations and we have invested substantial resources in risk assessment and mitigation, product safety and consumer protection.”

It said it disagreed with the "disproportionate fine, which does not adequately reflect our established framework and the significant, proactive enhancements we have made. We are carefully reviewing the decision and considering all available options.”

The fine was for conduct by the company until at least June 2025, when the commission issued a preliminary ruling that found AliExpress was not doing enough to tackle the sale of illegal products under the DSA, and when it accepted commitments by AliExpress to improve its systems.

The commission said that AliExpress now has until Oct. 20 to submit an action plan setting out measures to “remedy the breach of its obligations to assess and mitigate systemic risks.”

The Digital Services Act is designed to keep users safe online and stop the spread of harmful content that’s either illegal or violates a platform’s terms of service, such as promotion of genocide or anorexia. It also looks to protect Europeans’ fundamental rights like privacy and free speech.

Monday’s announcement in Brussels also comes less than three weeks after AliExpress' operator, Chinese tech giant Alibaba, said it will pay $600 million to resolve a dispute with the U.S. government over allegations that the Hangzhou-based firm sold and imported illegal pharmaceuticals, controlled substances, regulated chemicals and pill-making equipment into the U.S.

Video replays showed several players involved in a scuffle, including Argentina midfielder Leandro Paredes.

He appeared to shove Spain's Eric Garcia by the throat. When Spain substitute Gavi jumped in to intervene, Paredes pushed him to the ground.

Spain captain Rodri also seemed to be hit in the stomach by Argentina defender Nahuel Molina as he ran past to join teammates celebrating the title win.

Molina later crowded Rodri, who was the target of a verbal confrontation by his former Manchester City teammate Nicolas Otamendi.

Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni and other players rushed in to deescalate the situation.

FIFA said in a statement its “disciplinary committee has appointed a Disciplinary and Ethics Prosecutor to investigate potential breaches of the (FIFA disciplinary code) with regard to the post-match incidents.”

The brief statement gave no timetable for an investigation and did not name Paredes, who was not shown a red card after the game yet could face a suspension.

Spain needed extra time to win Sunday’s final 1-0 after Argentina was reduced to 10 men. Enzo Fernandez was sent off with a second yellow card in stoppage time at the end of 90 minutes.

The Argentina players stood facing their fans, with their backs to the podium, when Spain’s squad lifted the trophy. It was an unusual show of disrespect to the new champions, who had given their opponents a guard of honor to collect their medals.

___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

The Arizona governorship is a top takeover opportunity for Republicans in a midterm environment where voters historically have punished the party occupying the White House. The eventual winner, along with his or her statewide political organization, could play an important role in the 2028 presidential campaign, as Arizona is once again expected to be a critical battleground.

Of the seven Democratic governors in states Donald Trump carried in 2024 as the Republican presidential nominee, only two are up for reelection in 2026, and only Hobbs is expected to face a competitive general election.

Two Arizona congressmen and two businessmen are vying for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. Five-term U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs is a former chair of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. Eight-term U.S. Rep. David Schweikert is giving up his competitive swing district seat after narrowly prevailing against strong Democratic challenges in the last three elections. Businessmen Ken Miceli and Scott Neely have backgrounds in the construction industry.

Biggs has a key endorsement from Trump. The president had already endorsed another candidate, billionaire housing developer Karrin Taylor Robson, but he issued an additional endorsement for Biggs shortly after he entered the race in early 2025. Taylor Robson dropped out of the race in February. Trump has been known to occasionally endorse more than one candidate for the same race. Recently, he endorsed both candidates in the primary runoff for South Carolina governor.

In the race to replace Schweikert in the 1st Congressional District, the Republican field features state Rep. Joseph Chaplik, sportscaster and former Arizona Cardinals placekicker Jay Feely and technology and telecommunications executive John Trobough. Feely briefly ran in the 5th Congressional District, but Trump endorsed another candidate and nudged Feely to run in another district or for a different office. Feely switched to the 1st District, and Trump endorsed him and former state party chair Gina Swoboda for the nomination. Swoboda later dropped out to run for secretary of state.

The Democratic primary includes two candidates from the 2024 primary for this same seat: former state Rep. Amish Shah and former local news anchor Marlene Galán-Woods. Shah won the nomination two years ago, while Galán-Woods finished third out of six candidates. Shah received 48% of the vote against Schweikert in the general election. Publisher Rick McCartney and entrepreneur Jonathan Treble round out the Democratic field.

The 1st Congressional District is just northeast of Phoenix and includes Scottsdale. It is contained entirely within Maricopa County. Schweikert received 51.9% and 50.4% of the vote in his 2024 and 2022 reelection bids, respectively. In the 2024 presidential race, Trump received about 51% of the vote, compared with about 48% for then-Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

Another Republican-held seat that is key to Democratic hopes of retaking the U.S. House is in the 6th Congressional District, where Rep. Juan Ciscomani seeks a third term. He and his Democratic opponent, Marine Corps veteran JoAnna Mendoza, are unopposed in their primaries.

In the state Legislature, all 30 state Senate seats and all 60 state House seats are up for election. Republicans hold slim majorities in both chambers. Democrats have not controlled the state Senate since 1992 or the state House since 1966, the last time the party controlled the governorship and both chambers simultaneously.

Maricopa County is by far the most populous and most influential of the state’s 15 counties in both Democratic and Republican statewide primaries. It is home to Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe and Mesa and contributed about 61% of the vote in the 2024 presidential general election. Pima County was a distant second with about 15% of the vote.

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

When do polls close?

Polls close at 7 p.m. local time, which is 10 p.m. ET in almost all of the state. No results will be released before 11 p.m. ET. Most of Arizona does not observe daylight saving time. The Navajo Nation is an exception, and polls there close at 9 p.m. ET.

What’s on the ballot?

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

Who gets to vote?

Registered Democrats and Republicans may vote only in their own parties’ primaries. Independents may vote in either the Democratic or Republican primary.

How many voters are there?

As of July, there were about 4.3 million registered voters in Arizona, including about 1.5 million Republicans, about 1.2 million Democrats and about 1.5 million voters not registered with any party.

How many people actually vote?

About 596,000 Democratic primary votes and about 831,000 Republican primary votes were cast in the 2022 primaries for governor.

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

Arizona conducts elections predominantly by mail. About 93% of the Democratic primary vote and about 79% of the Republican primary vote in the 2022 state primaries was cast early in person or by mail.

As of Thursday, about 755,000 ballots had already been cast in Tuesday’s election, roughly 335,000 from Democrats and 347,000 from Republicans

When are early and absentee votes released?

Arizona counties tend to release all or almost all of their results from early in-person voting, as well as a significant amount of results from mail voting, in the first vote update of the night, usually before any in-person Election Day votes are reported.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

In the 2024 state primary, the AP first reported results at 11:02 p.m. ET, or 2 minutes after the state allowed votes to be released. About half of the total votes cast had been counted by 11:05 p.m. ET. The last vote update of the night was at about 5:35 a.m. ET with about 83% of total votes counted.

When will the AP declare a winner?

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

How do recounts work?

In Arizona, recounts are automatic if the vote margin is 0.5% of the total vote or less. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

Are we there yet?

As of Tuesday, there will be 105 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

___

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

Leer en español

According to the Florida Department of Revenue, during the sales tax holiday period from Monday, July 20 to Thursday, Aug. 20, tax is not due on the retail sale of:

• Clothing, footwear, wallets, bags, handbags, backpacks, fanny packs, and diaper bags with a sales price of $100 or less per item • Certain school supplies with a sales price of $50 or less per item • Learning aids and jigsaw puzzles with a sales price of $30 or less • Personal computers and certain computer-related accessories with a sales price of $1,500 or less, when purchased for noncommercial home or personal use.

The annual sales tax holiday does not apply to:

• Briefcases, suitcases, or garment bags

• Watches, watchbands, jewelry, umbrellas, and handkerchiefs

• Skis, swim fins, roller blades, and skates

• Clothing items with a sales price of more than $100

• Any school supply item with a sales price of more than $50

• Books that are not otherwise exempt

• Computers and computer-related accessories with a sales price of more than $1,500

• Cellular telephones, video game consoles, digital media receivers, or devices that are not primarily designed to process data

• Computers and computer-related accessories purchased for commercial purposes

• Rentals of any eligible items

• Repairs or alterations of any eligible items

• Sales of any eligible items within a theme park or entertainment complex, public lodging establishment, or airport.

Click here for more information on this year’s sales tax holiday.

Leer en español

The depression is moving toward the north-northwest near two mph and a slow northwestward or north-northwestward motion is expected during the next day or two, followed by a turn toward the west.

On the forecast track, the depression will move near or along the northern Gulf coast during the next several days.

Maximum sustained winds are near 30 mph with higher gusts. Gradual strengthening is forecast, and the depression is expected to become a tropical storm tonight or on Monday.

The minimum central pressure based on surface observations is 1011 mb.

A Tropical Storm Watch has been issued for Florida from Ochlockonee River to the Alabama border.

Tropical Depression 2 is forecast strengthen into a tropical storm today. We will have no direct impacts from this system this week, though drier air is forecast to filter in behind it midweek. This lower storm chance will keep temperatures above normal, with heat index values approaching Heat Advisory criteria each afternoon.

With Parliament’s summer recess looming, time is running out.

After the European Commission found that the latest version of the bill was not fully compatible with EU law, members of the National Assembly and the Senate held conclusive talks Monday, sealing a deal on an amended bill that will go before both chambers for a final vote on Tuesday.

French President Emmanuel Macron has strongly backed the ban, which could become one of the final major measures adopted under his leadership before he leaves office next year. The bill also bans the use of mobile phones in high schools.

The main point of divergence concerned the scope of the platforms to be banned. The National Assembly had voted to prohibit all online social networking services, whereas the senators wanted to establish a blacklist of platforms covered by the ban.

The bill had been devised to be compliant with the EU Digital Services Act, which imposes a set of strict requirements designed to keep internet users safe online. While sharing the goal of better protecting minors, the EU Commission however found that the proposed legislation overlapped with the EU act and asked French authorities to amend the draft.

Lawmakers ultimately agreed to propose a blanket ban, in line with the version initially approved by the National Assembly, leaving EU authorities in charge of ensuring that the platforms comply with the age restriction.

The ban won’t cover online encyclopedias, educational or scientific directories, or platforms for the development and sharing of open-source software.

If adopted Tuesday, the law can’t be passed before Aug. 10 because of the notification period required by EU law.

According to France’s health watchdog, one in two teenagers spends between two and five hours a day on a smartphone. In a report published in December, it said that some 90% of children aged between 12 and 17 use smartphones daily to access the internet, with 58% of them using their devices for social networks.

The report highlighted a range of harmful effects stemming from the use of social networks, including reduced self-esteem and increased exposure to content associated with risky behaviors such as self-harm, drug use and suicide. Several families in France have sued TikTok over teen suicides they say are linked to harmful content.

Setting a minimum age gains momentum worldwide

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen earlier this month called for limits to be placed on children using social media. A special EU panel looking into the challenge recommended forbidding access for those under 13 until tech companies can prove their platforms are safe.

Growing awareness of the dangers social media poses for young, developing brains has shown up in a wave of new restrictions globally. Australia, the U.K., Turkey, Indonesia and others have passed bans on young people under 16 or 15 from using platforms like TikTok, YouTube and Instagram.

Laying out a list of her concerns about the use of social media by children, Von der Leyen said that children under 3 should have no exposure to screens at all. She noted infinite scrolling as one of the “addictive” traits that tech companies must address.

The European Commission is likely to come up with a proposal for the 27 member countries to weigh in the near future.

The 26 players and their coaching staff met with the country's royals, and then with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, after arriving in the Spanish capital a day after beating Argentina 1-0 in the final in New Jersey.

“Thank you to the coaches and players for the style of play, the effort and the victory,” Sánchez said. “We have truly enjoyed watching you play.”

The squad then boarded an open-top bus for a raucous parade through central Madrid. “Stars shine together” was written on the bus, which also carried photos of the footballers.

Players — carrying the World Cup trophy and wearing shirts with the words Somos Campeones (We Are Champions) — danced and interacted with the fans along the route.

“It's been an emotional and proud experience to represent a wonderful country with such passionate and devoted fans," Spain coach Luis de la Fuente said before the parade started. “We are filled with joy.”

The squad traveled down Madrid's historic avenues from near Moncloa Palace, the prime minister’s official residence, to Cibeles Square, where authorities told local media that some 120,000 people were on hand for a ceremony.

Players were introduced one by one before entering the stage set up at the square. Each picked the song to be played when they came in. Álex Baena, celebrating his 25th birthday, entered with the World Cup trophy.

Coach De la Fuente was thrusted into the air by his players after being introduced. The coach was among those who sang along to the song being played for them.

Striker Borja Iglesias featured as a D.J. at one point, with his teammates dancing on the stage.

Singers Aitana, Ana Mena and Lola Índigo were among those entertaining the crowd and the players.

The ceremony ended with the whole Spain squad lifting the trophy again, just like at the awards ceremony on Sunday, but now in front of the local crowd.

Groups of fans had begun securing their spots near Cibeles late Monday morning ahead of the team’s arrival, bringing umbrellas to protect against the sun and temperatures of up to 35 Celsius (95 Fahrenheit).

The square is where previous Spain teams and their supporters have typically gathered to celebrate. It's also the traditional celebration spot for Real Madrid when it wins titles.

Officials estimated a total of 1.8 million people welcomed the team in Madrid.

Spain walked off with the trophy Sunday after Ferran Torres scored the winner in extra time to secure its second World Cup title — and first since 2010 in South Africa.

The team was congratulated by the leaders of the three countries that co-hosted the tournament — U.S. President Donald Trump, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

After the final whistle, Madrid erupted into celebrations, with thousands of supporters pouring into the streets from bars and restaurants, many draped in Spanish flags or wearing the team's colors.

Crowds packed the capital's Puerta de Sol and other major squares — singing, dancing and setting off flares while car horns blared.

Many celebrated Sunday’s victory long into the wee hours of Monday morning.

“I’m very happy. I’ve slept three or four hours, but for the team, I’ll do whatever it takes,” 19-year-old Victor Álvarez said.

The men's victory, combined with the Women’s World Cup won by Spain in 2023, makes the European nation the first to hold both titles simultaneously.

“Honestly, it was very exciting. We preferred not to go to any bar or anything, to experience it at home, focused and very happy, very joyful,” 59-year-old civil servant Gema Rodero said.

Celebrations were dampened, however, after local authorities reported that a 13-year-old in Salamanca, northwest of Madrid, had died after a fountain he had climbed onto with friends to mark the victory had collapsed.

For many young supporters, the triumph is their first time witnessing the men's team lift the trophy — and the national delirium that has followed.

Spain now is markedly different from 2010, when the Iberian nation was beset by a debt crisis, 20% unemployment and nationalist regions fighting to win more autonomy.

The economy is expanding, the unemployment rate has halved and the country is forecast to again be among the Eurozone’s fastest-growing major economies. Nationalist and separatist tensions have considerably cooled.

___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

The Defense Department said in a statement that Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, and Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas, were killed in Jordan in Friday’s attacks.

Feehan, a first lieutenant, will be posthumously promoted to the rank of captain and awarded the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart and the Combat Action Badge. The Army did not provide details about his commendations. He was assigned out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to the 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command.

Gonzales was a private with the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command in Ansbach, Germany. She graduated last year from Hebron High School in Carrollton, near Dallas, school officials said.

“She gave her life in that service, and our district is heartbroken by her loss,” the Lewisville Independent School District said in a statement. “Her decision to serve after graduation speaks volumes of her character.”

The military said Gonzales died on Friday and Feehan died the following day. It did not provide details.

A third service member was reported missing in the attacks that killed Feehan and Gonzales. U.S. Central Command said Sunday that “unidentified remains” have been found and were being examined.

The US military says 17 service members have been killed in the war with Iran

The deaths reflect the complicated reality that American soldiers don’t need to be on the ground in Iran for there to be lethal risks in a conflict that involves drones, missiles and airplanes. American forces are arrayed across the Middle East, making other nations targets of Iran and its allies as the fighting has escalated after a breakdown in peace talks.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said the war is necessary to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Trump, a Republican, now faces political pressure to bring the war to a close and avoid the kind of prolonged Middle East conflict he had campaigned against.

Drones and missiles are claiming lives on both sides

An American service member was also killed in northern Iraq on Saturday during a “controlled detonation” of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian drone, U.S. Central Command said Sunday. A second service member was wounded and was receiving medical treatment for a minor injury.

The military said it was withholding additional information until 24 hours after families had been notified.

Iranian authorities said U.S. strikes in just the past three weeks have killed at least 50 people and wounded more than 500 others, including eight killed in a strike on a bridge Friday.

Both sides have targeted civilian infrastructure relied on by millions of people. Workers on ships, as well as foreign workers and others in Gulf nations, Israel and Lebanon have also died in the conflict.

The first US military fatalities came soon after the war started

Shortly after the U.S. and Israel began the war on Feb. 28, an Iranian drone strike at a civilian port in Kuwait killed six American soldiers. The soldiers were part of a supply and logistics unit based in Iowa who were working at a shipping container-style building that had no defenses.

A seventh soldier died more than a week after being wounded during a March 1 attack by Iran on the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.

Later in March, six service members were killed when a KC-135 refueling aircraft supporting U.S. military operations against Iran crashed in Iraq. The aircraft was in “friendly” airspace when an unspecified incident involving another aircraft took place, according to U.S. Central Command.

Last week, the U.S. military said a Navy pilot died in a helicopter crash in the Arabian Sea. The Navy initially described the July 1 crash as an emergency landing and said there was “no indication the emergency was caused by hostile action.” The remaining three sailors aboard the helicopter were rescued.

Smart, 58, was a 22-year-old high school media coordinator when she began an affair with a 15-year-old boy who later fatally shot her husband, Gregory Smart, in Derry.

The shooter was freed in 2015 after serving a 25-year sentence. Though Smart denied knowledge of the plot, she was convicted of being an accomplice to first-degree murder and other crimes and was sentenced to life without parole after a trial that was one of the first in the nation to be broadcast live on television from start to finish.

Smart filed a petition for habeas corpus relief in January seeking to overturn her conviction over what her lawyers claim were several constitutional violations. The state responded with a motion to dismiss the petition, resulting in Monday's hearing, which Smart attended remotely from the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in New York.

Merrimack County Superior Court Judge James Kennedy took the matter under advisement. He planned to rule in 30 to 60 days.

Smart's lawyers say transcripts of recordings during trial were inaccurate

Smart's lawyers argue that prosecutors misled the jury by providing them with inaccurate transcripts of surreptitiously recorded conversations of Smart that included words that were not audible on the recordings.

Among the words they claim weren’t audible but in the transcript were the word “killed” in the sentence “you had your husband killed,” the word “busted” in the sentence “I’m gonna be busted” and the word “murder” in the sentence “this would have been the perfect murder.”

“Modern science confirms what common sense has always told us: when people are handed a script, they inevitably hear the words they are shown,” Smart’s attorney, Matthew Zernhelt, said in a statement earlier this year. “Jurors were not evaluating the recordings independently — they were being directed toward a conclusion, and that direction decided the verdict.”

In court Monday, he described a forensic study that showed providing transcripts alongside muffled audio leads listeners to believe the written text even when inaccurate.

“Adding a transcript of language to the jurors changed their interpretation of what they believed they were hearing, how confident they were in what they believed they were hearing and how clear it was to them,” he said. “There's no absolute truth about what's on the tapes. Nothing decipherable is on the tapes. But when you tell someone what they're hearing, you set this expectation ... and they will hear it.”

Smart's lawyers also argued that the verdict was tainted by the media attention and due to faulty instructions to the jury. They argued jurors were told they must find that Smart acted with premeditation, and were not told they must consider only evidence presented at trial.

They also argued the trial court gave her a mandatory life sentence without parole for being an accomplice to first-degree murder, despite New Hampshire not mandating that sentence for the charge.

Lawyers for the state say Smart's petition should be dismissed

Lawyers for the state asked the judge to dismiss the petition, saying nearly all of the claims are barred because they already were raised on appeal and resolved by the New Hampshire Supreme Court, or could have been raised on appeal with the court but were not.

They noted that during Smart's trial, the defense only expressed concern that the recording transcripts allegedly failed to account for the “doubling” of voices when two people speak at once. The judge instructed jurors that if the tapes differed from what they were reading, they should use what they heard, instead. The state Supreme Court noted that Smart's lawyers did not make any “particularized showing of inaccuracies in the transcripts relative to the recordings or how she may have been prejudiced” by them.

Assistant Attorney General John Drennan said none of Smart's claims are supported by facts, and that she appears to be using the habeas corpus process as a substitute for an appeal. He likened the discrepancies with the transcripts to someone viewing text of a transcribed voicemail and then listening to the actual message.

“Maybe cognitive bias has set in, but it doesn't mean that I can't, when listening, say, ‘Hey, I’m not sure that's right,'” he said. “I know to review it. I know to be skeptical.”

Smart's team hasn't proven other claims, such as ineffective assistance of counsel and having the case argued in New York, rather than in New Hampshire, the lawyers for the state said.

Smart's legal options are limited. She has unsuccessfully sought a sentence reduction hearing several times with an elected state council in New Hampshire that approves contracts and appointees to the courts and state agencies. She appealed one rejection to the state Supreme Court, which dismissed her petition in 2023.

Her latest petition was filed after New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte rejected her request last year to put the matter before the council again. Ayotte said she reviewed the case and decided it was not deserving of a hearing.

Smart took full responsibility for husband's death in video

In 2024, Smart took full responsibility for her husband’s death. She said in a video she spent years deflecting blame “almost as if it was a coping mechanism.”

Smart’s trial was a media circus and one of America’s first high-profile cases about a sexual affair between a school employee and a student. The student, William Flynn, testified that Smart told him she needed her husband killed because she feared she would lose everything if they divorced and that she threatened to break up with him if he didn’t kill her husband. Flynn and three other teens cooperated with prosecutors and all have since been released.

Flynn and 17-year-old Patrick Randall entered the Smarts’ Derry condominium and forced Gregory Smart to his knees in the foyer. As Randall held a knife to the man’s throat, Flynn fired a hollow-point bullet into his head. Both pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and were sentenced to 28 years to life. They were granted parole in 2015. Two other teenagers served prison sentences and have been released.

The case inspired Joyce Maynard’s 1992 book “To Die For” and the 1995 film of the same name, starring Nicole Kidman and Joaquin Phoenix.

The development highlighted challenges faced by Chinese AI models in serving a growing user base at home and abroad at a time the U.S.-China tech race is heating up.

Chinese open-source, lower-cost advanced AI models, including DeepSeek’s latest V4, have been moving fast in gaining global attention. In early 2025, DeepSeek shook world markets and helped China to be recognized as a serious competitor to the U.S., where Chinese frontier AI models are largely open source, meaning they are made accessible for people to examine and build upon.

“Kimi K3 has received far more love than we expected,” Moonshot AI, which is Beijing-based, wrote in a X post late on Sunday. “Over the past 48 hours, demand has pushed close to the limits of our current capacity.”

Moonshot said that it’s prioritizing existing subscribers and would be temporarily pausing new ones. “We’re adding capacity as fast as we can and will reopen new subscription spots in batches," it added. The AI startup also posted a similar message on Chinese social media.

K3’s public rollout late last week, aiming at challenging more advanced AI models by Anthropic,OpenAI and others, has rattled U.S. rivals. At 2.8 trillion parameters, a measurement of an AI model’s capabilities, it's deemed as the world’s largest open-source AI model.

“New model releases generally trigger massive interest, which can strain existing compute infrastructure,” said Lian Jye Su, a chief analyst at the technology research and advisory group Omdia. “This does show Moonshot AI does not have sufficient compute chips to serve the current surge in demand.”

Su said that the key reason was more likely due to Moonshot not fully anticipating the surge in K3’s popularity. K3 is “very demanding” in terms of compute requirements, he said, making compute allocation challenging and expensive.

By measure of front-end coding capability, a metric for AI models’ performances, Kimi K3 topped the chart of the major advanced AI models in rankings on Arena — an AI model evaluation platform — after its public release.

K3’s release has also put pressure on stocks of American technology titans on worries that more affordable Chinese AI models may undercut the pricing power and demand at the U.S. AI companies, even as U.S.-led restrictions have already barred China from accessing some of the world’s advanced technologies, including the most cutting-edge chips.

K3 is one of the latest new Chinese AI models coming out that have drawn strong global reactions.

Over the weekend, China’s Alibaba also previewed its latest Qwen3.8 Max AI model, which the tech giant said had 2.4 trillion parameters as one of the world’s most powerful models and was second only to Anthropic’s Fable 5. Last month, Chinese startup Zhipu, or Z.ai, also rolled out its GLM-5.2 model, which saw rapid adoption across the world.

The trial of Lindsay Clancy, which could take several weeks, is expected to explore the complicated and rare phenomenon of postpartum psychosis, which afflicts a very small percentage of women who develop delusions and sometimes hallucinations after childbirth.

Five jurors were selected Monday. A total of 18 jurors, including six alternates, will be chosen for the trial.

Clancy's lawyers — and her husband — say she was not responsible for her actions. Defense attorney Kevin Reddington doesn’t dispute that she killed the children, but plans to raise an insanity defense.

“This whole case is an extreme tragedy,” he said.

Prosecutors say the killings were intentional and well planned, not the work of someone who had lost control.

Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the deaths of her children Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, when they were killed on Jan. 24, 2023.

___

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

___

On the day of the killings, Clancy, now 36, asked her husband Patrick Clancy to leave their home to get takeout food and to pick up something at a pharmacy. She strangled the children with exercise bands, then used multiple methods to try to end her own life.

She was paralyzed after falling from the home’s second-story window, and is being held at a state hospital.

Clancy’s husband is on the list of witnesses for both the prosecution and the defense. He has said in interviews that he forgives his wife.

Eighteen jurors, including six alternates, are expected to be chosen over several days for the trial in Plymouth, which is near the family’s home in Duxbury, an upscale coastal suburb about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Boston.

Clancy and her husband filed lawsuits earlier this year accusing her medical providers of failing to properly diagnose, treat and monitor her for a “severe postpartum psychiatric condition.” She spent several days at a psychiatric hospital weeks before the killings.

Lindsay Clancy’s lawsuit detailed how she was depressed, had trouble sleeping and repeatedly heard voices urging her to harm her children and herself.

“Lindsay Clancy did everything a mother in her situation could do,” the lawsuit said. “She recognized something was wrong with her. She sought medical treatment. She went to emergency rooms. She called crisis hotlines. She admitted herself to hospitals. She took the medication prescribed to her. She communicated her worsening symptoms to her providers. She told them the medications were making her worse.”

The day of the killings, Clancy said she heard voices saying, “This is your last chance. Kill the children so you can kill yourself.” A voice told her “that her children would suffer if she was gone,” according to the lawsuit filed by Patrick Clancy, citing medical records.

In a post on GoFundMe several days after the killings, Patrick Clancy wrote that the “shock and pain is excruciating and relentless,” but he urged the public to see Lindsay Clancy as he did before the killings.

“The real Lindsay was generously loving and caring toward everyone — me, our kids, family, friends, and her patients. The very fibers of her soul are loving. All I wish for her now is that she can somehow find peace,” it said.

Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Odey Ukpo talked to The Associated Press about how his office handles its work and reaches its headline-making conclusions.

Why the cause of death is not always the most obvious option

Perry was found unresponsive in the hot tub at his Los Angeles home in October 2023 and initial reports speculated that he had drowned.

Two months after his death, Ukpo's office determined the main cause of his death was acute toxicity of the surgical anesthetic ketamine and that drowning was a secondary cause.

Some advocates for ketamine, which is increasingly used to treat depression and chronic pain, said drowning should have been deemed the primary cause.

Ukpo said his staffers considered how anyone could drown in a hot tub and concluded Perry would have been able to climb out safely if he hadn't been incapacitated by the drug.

“But for the ketamine, would he have been out of it and unable to rescue himself?” Ukpo said. “That’s why ketamine is the cause of death primarily, and then the drowning contributed.”

Why ‘overdose’ never appears in an autopsy report

“A medical examiner never certifies a death as an overdose. If you look at death certificates, you’ll never see ‘methamphetamine overdose.’” Ukpo said.

“It’s just part of the culture and understanding about how drugs kill people. People can understand ‘overdose,’ but any level of methamphetamine can kill somebody. When you say overdose, it suggests that there’s an appropriate amount that someone can take. This one overdid it,” he said.

“That’s never the message that we give.”

Why toxicology reports take so long

Autopsies are generally performed and initial conclusions reached soon after a body is found, but a report revealing cause of death can take months if a toxicology test is required.

“We want to make sure that we get it right,” Ukpo said. “When someone dies, the blood specimens are different than when you’re at the hospital, so they’re harder to handle. And we also have to have certainty. In the hospital if you do a urine drug test, they tell you within a few hours. And that’s because they’re OK if it’s wrong. They’ll treat you because the treatment for cocaine, it doesn’t hurt. We’ll just assume it’s cocaine and that’s fine. But for us, it’s cause of death and has implications. And so it does take months to come back.”

In some cases, toxicology tests are needed to understand what substance may have killed the person. In others, they're more of a check to assure conclusions are correct.

When the autopsy was performed on Rivas Hernandez, who had been dead for months when her body was found, it was fairly clear she had been stabbed.

“We knew very early on what was going on, particularly defects in the clothing and on the body itself,” Ukpo said. “It’s then we have to do toxicology as due diligence to make sure drugs didn’t also play a role in the death.”

Alcohol was found in her system, but it was produced postmortem.

“When someone dies, the bacteria can then change the glucose into alcohol. And so therefore you have a presence of alcohol, which would appear that it was real, but it was actually produced by a bacteria,” he said. “There are also other interference things that can make things look like they’re positive at the beginning, but then at the later stage are negative. We do confirmation testing.”