The Fed’s inspector general said that a variety of missteps by its Board of Governors inflated the cost of the $2.4 billion renovation. The board did not secure a comprehensive cost estimate at the beginning of the project, nor did it nail down a maximum overall cost, a step that could have forced the building contractor to absorb the impact of inflation, the IG said in a 120-page report. Prices spiked after construction began in 2022.

“Our review found that the Board has not effectively managed and executed its ... contract and repeatedly deviated from its cost-management provisions,” the report said. Former Chair Jerome Powell requested that the IG review the renovation project last year.

The building renovation project became a high-profile flashpoint in the Trump administration’s attempts to pressure the Fed into cutting its key interest rate. President Donald Trump even visited the construction site last July, when Powell corrected Trump’s estimate of the project’s expected costs as the two stood before TV cameras in hard hats.

Trump’s Justice Department then launched an investigation into whether Powell had committed perjury during brief testimony on the building renovation before a Senate committee. That investigation was dropped in April after a judge quashed subpoenas issued by Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. Pirro said then she would await the outcome of the inspector general’s investigation before deciding whether to take any further action.

“At no point during our evaluation did we find reasonable grounds to believe that a violation of federal criminal law had occurred requiring a referral to the U.S. Attorney General,” the IG’s report said.

The report said that the construction costs to renovate two Fed buildings more than doubled from an original estimate of $921 million in February 2020 to $2.018 billion by December 2024. Construction is expected to last until December 2027, long past its originally slated completion date of mid-2024.

Some aspects of the project that were criticized by the Trump administration and Republican members of Congress for being luxurious — water fountains, private elevators and marble facades — were not significant drivers of the excessive costs of the project.

Instead, the IG said that a design change by the Fed in 2023 from a mostly open workspace to one with mostly closed office space caused a significant delay in the project's design. It also delayed the Fed from seeking a maximum cost ceiling for the project at that time.

While some passengers screamed, the FlyDubai flight issued an emergency alert and abruptly descended thousands of feet (meters). Israel scrambled warplanes amid concerns about a possible hijacking.

As a plane carrying passengers from the flight landed Wednesday evening in Israel, to cheers at the airport, it was not clear what motivated the attack.

“We’re going to die,” passenger Naama Bershadski recalled of the ordeal. She said she closed her eyes and prayed for a good ending.

Video footage circulating on social media and reviewed by The Associated Press showed two men on the plane’s floor, bloodied and wounded. Two people appeared to be providing medical treatment, while two others guarded the cockpit.

“We are guarding the pilot,” one person said in Hebrew. In another video, passengers wept and cried out as the aircraft shook.

Those who intervened “saved many lives and prevented a major disaster,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, adding that Saudi Arabia arrested a pilot whose identity was not immediately shared by authorities. Saudi Arabia had no immediate comment.

The plane’s captain and first officer were injured, according to a statement by Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Tabuk, carried by state-run Alekhbariya television. Passengers received medical attention from local authorities, according to a regional official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to brief the media.

Netanyahu warned in recent days of unspecified, heightened security threats. The country is a week away from the anniversary of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which has triggered a series of wars, and is weeks away from an election.

A spokesperson for Netanyahu’s office said around 160 people on the plane were from Israel.

Two pilots fought, and passengers and crew intervened

An Israeli official said a fight broke out between two pilots, one of whom was armed with a knife. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the incident was under investigation.

Around two and a half hours after leaving Dubai, the flight descended from 33,000 feet to 17,000 feet (around 10,000 meters to 5,100 meters) in about a minute, before making an erratic circle close to the Jordanian border and landing in Tabuk about an hour later, according to Flightradar24.

As the plane began to dive, a passenger and a crew member broke into the cockpit, Netanyahu said, citing a passenger he spoke to. Other crew members took over flying the plane.

Among the passengers who intervened were members of the Israeli security forces and air marshals, according to a person familiar with a probe by Saudi Arabia and regional partners. The person was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

FlyDubai confirmed that an “altercation occurred in the flight deck” and the aircraft was secured by on-duty crew “who diverted and landed the aircraft safely.”

An official confirmed that Israel had scrambled warplanes, fearing a hijacking. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the incident was under investigation.

Passengers screamed when they heard a fight

Yasmin Abukasis said her daughter, who was on the plane, told her in a phone call that she could hear someone screaming “Help!”

Her daughter said the crew started to lose control of the jet, causing passengers to scream, but eventually two people were able to wrest control of the plane while others attempted to subdue the attacker.

Passengers told Israel’s Channel 12 by phone they heard shouts from those sitting near the front of the plane who heard the altercation between the pilots.

The airport in Tabuk reported that a FlyDubai flight made a distress call at 8:44 a.m. local time, before landing safely at 9:45 a.m.

Former United Airlines pilot and aviation safety expert Steve Arroyo said he was surprised that the plane was able to land safely after most of the rudder was ripped off the tail during the extreme descent.

“That was a serious descent and strong aerodynamic forces on that rudder for that to happen. I’m just amazed the aircraft didn’t come apart,” Arroyo said.

Israelis have made emergency landings in Saudi Arabia before

Israelis were targeted in a string of hijackings and airplane attacks by Palestinian militants in the 1960s and 1970s. Israel has not experienced a hijacking in decades but maintains some of the strictest airport security in the world, including on Israel-bound flights.

The emergency landing in Saudi Arabia was not the first for a plane carrying Israelis home. The kingdom does not have formal diplomatic ties with Israel, but ended its longstanding ban on Israeli flights overflying its territory in 2022.

Since then, Saudi Arabia has coordinated emergency landings for Israeli passengers, including in 2023 when a plane experienced an electrical malfunction.

The UAE has become a popular vacation destination for Israeli tourists since the countries normalized ties in 2020. FlyDubai is the lower-cost sister carrier of Emirates airlines.

___

Magdy reported from Cairo and Scharf from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Sam Metz and Aamer Madhani in Jerusalem, Ami Ben Tov in Tel Aviv, Israel, Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, and Adam Schreck in Bangkok contributed to this report.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A new campus in Wynwood

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Griffin: Miami campus is a ‘generational opportunity’

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

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

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

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

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

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

According to a Homestead Police Department arrest report, detectives responded to a home in the 1000 block of Northwest Ninth Street around 2:20 a.m. Tuesday.

Police identified the suspects as brothers, Yonelfy Elionai Diaz, 21, and Roibyn Diaz Gonzalez, 30.

According to the report, a Miami-Dade fire investigator determined the fire was arson in nature and that a possible accelerant had been used. Samples were collected and submitted to a laboratory for additional testing.

Investigators said four vehicles, a side-by-side and a portion of the home sustained extensive damage.

The owner of two of the damaged vehicles told detectives that two days before the fire, he had been involved in an incident with his ex-wife’s two brothers after dropping off their four children at her home.

According to the report, the victim told police that during the Sunday evening confrontation, Roibyn Diaz Gonzalez threw a wrench at the side-by-side he was driving.

That incident was documented by the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office as an aggravated assault, according to the arrest report.

The victim told investigators that because of the circumstances, he suspected his ex-wife’s two brothers were involved in the fire.

Surveillance video captures explosions, 2 men running

Investigators said a surveillance camera on Northwest Ninth Street captured the fire.

According to the report, the video showed multiple explosions followed by two men running away. One of the men appeared to have his back on fire as he ran before getting into a silver sedan.

Police said both men then fled westbound on Northwest Ninth Street.

Additional surveillance cameras captured the vehicle traveling north on Northwest 12th Avenue with its headlights off before heading west on Northwest Ninth Court toward Northwest 14th Avenue, the report states.

Investigators said license plate readers identified the vehicle as a silver Toyota Corolla registered to the sister of Roibyn Diaz Gonzalez and Yonelfy Diaz Gonzalez.

Later that afternoon, detectives located a white dually truck and conducted a traffic stop near Southwest 244th Street and Southwest 187th Avenue.

According to the report, Roibyn Diaz Gonzalez was driving the truck and was arrested in connection with an unrelated incident.

Online jail records show he faces a charge of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and was also out on felony bond for domestic violence at the time of his arrest.

While Yonelfy Diaz Gonzalez’s arrest report also lists Roibyn as a suspect in the arson investigation, it’s unclear why he isn’t facing charges in that case at this time.

According to the arrest report, the brothers’ sister arrived at the scene of the traffic stop, followed shortly afterward by Yonelfy Diaz Gonzalez, who police said came to pick up the truck, which belonged to him.

Detectives immediately noticed what appeared to be injuries on Yonelfy Diaz Gonzalez, according to the report.

Police said he had blisters on his hands, the hair on both of his eyelashes appeared burned, and he had redness above his right eyelash and on his nose.

Yonelfy Diaz Gonzalez agreed to go to the police station to speak with investigators, the report states.

During the interview, detectives asked him to remove his hoodie and observed what they described as a large burn injury on his left arm.

According to police, Yonelfy Diaz Gonzalez was given multiple opportunities to explain how he suffered the injury but he declined to provide an explanation or disclose any involvement in the fire.

Meanwhile, police said they located the Corolla abandoned near Northeast Second Street and North Krome Avenue.

Investigators said the front passenger seat appeared to have burn stains. The vehicle was secured, sealed and towed.

Based on what investigators described as the totality of the circumstances, including Yonelfy Diaz Gonzalez’s injuries and their consistency with burns sustained from fire, police arrested him on a first-degree arson charge.

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

Roibyn Diaz Gonzalez was also being held at TGK and his bond was also listed as “to be set.”

Tinkler Mendez rescheduled the hearing at the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building to Oct. 28, saying the request had just come across her desk, and she is in the middle of a capital sentencing case and has not had sufficient time to review the agreement.

“The only litigation I’ve had on this case to date has been request to travel, as well as regular status (hearings),” she said. “But I am just not up to speed enough to move forward with a change of plea.”

The plea agreement was offered by prosecutors after more than 10 1/2 months of litigation, according to Brown’s attorney, Mark Eiglarsh.

“They made him an offer he couldn’t refuse,” Eiglarsh said in a statement to Local 10 News.

Under the agreement, Brown would plead no contest to aggravated assault with a firearm and would receive three years of probation with the potential of early termination.

“It’s a setback because it’s another moment my client has an ankle monitor on and doesn’t have closure,” Eiglarsh said after Tinkler Mendez declined to make a decision on the plea deal Wednesday. “The decision to accept the plea is thoroughly in the hands of the judge and I presume she will accept it. That said, this was carefully negotiated with the state.”

While the former NFL star had no words for Local 10 after the hearing, his appearance was bizarre as he placed a mask on his head moments after stepping out of court.

Brown currently faces a charge that carries a potential 30-year prison sentence, including a 20-year mandatory minimum sentence, according to his attorney.

The case stems from a May 2025 incident at a boxing event in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood.

Brown is accused of grabbing a gun from a staff member and firing two shots at a man, Zul-Qarnain Kwame Nantambu, who he had been involved in a brawl with. A bullet was said to have grazed the man’s neck.

City of Miami police officers handcuffed and escorted Brown away following the incident, but he was not charged until months later.

After the shooting, Brown took to social media and alleged that the man was trying to steal his jewelry and harm him.

The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office ultimately charged Brown with attempted second-degree murder with a firearm.

Eiglarsh has previously argued that the case was overcharged and said Brown had a strong self-defense case.

“This case is clearly overcharged as an attempted second-degree murder,” Eiglarsh said in November 2025. “Even the judge said at worst we’re talking about aggravated assault. Secondly, we have a strong self-defense case.”

Brown previously pleaded not guilty after being extradited to the United States from the Middle East.

At the time, his legal team disputed the suggestion that Brown had fled to Dubai.

“He didn’t flee to Dubai, he has ongoing business in Dubai,” his attorney said during a previous bond court appearance.

Earlier this month, Nantambu’s attorney told reporters that his client no longer wished to “participate” in Brown’s prosecution.

“We want the best for Antonio,” Nantambu said after Wednesday’s hearing. “We want him to get the healing that he needs and he can speak that into the free world.”

According to Eiglarsh, Brown has now decided that resolving the case is in the best interest of himself and his family.

“Antonio is ready to put this behind him, continue to focus on his children, rebuild his professional opportunities, and move forward with his life,” Eiglarsh said. “He has fought this case for more than ten and a half months. Now, he has an opportunity for something that has become increasingly important to him and his family: closure.”

He was with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Palace of Versailles in June at a signing ceremony for a business summit.

Al Mubarak, 50, also is a UAE special envoy to China, and welcomed Xi Jinping to the club when the Chinese leader visited England in 2015.

Why the head of an English soccer club — albeit one of the wealthiest, most successful and now highly controversial — should be a key player at such political events is easily explained.

Al Mubarak, the public face of the 2023 Champions League winner now embroiled in one of soccer's biggest scandals, is a member of the ruling elite in Abu Dhabi — part of the United Arab Emirates — and the head of a $385 billion sovereign wealth fund.

His family has a long tradition of public service that he has continued with a long list of roles serving his nation's interests, including as a strategy advisor to its president, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, known as MBZ, and a board member of both Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.

Before entering European soccer, Al Mubarak was a key liaison with F1 when the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix joined the circuit.

When Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, now a deputy prime minister of the UAE, bought the long-time underachieving soccer club in 2008, Al Mubarak was installed as chairman to oversee what became a turnaround that was barely believable to an older generation of fans.

The story of sporting and financial success was, according to the verdict by an investigatory panel, too good to be true.

While under Al Mubarak's leadership, Man Ci

ty was found to have broken financial rules

The Premier League announced Tuesday that its most successful club over the past 15 seasons, and current standings leader, systematically broke financial monitoring rules for years.

An independent panel of judges appointed by the league said City orchestrated “sham” contracts with commercial partners to disguise secret funding of more than 830 million pounds ($1.1 billion) by the Abu Dhabi ownership between 2009-18. Club witnesses also gave evidence “they knew to be untrue."

That money helped pay high-value transfer fees and wages for players, some signed from City’s biggest rivals, that fueled the club’s trophy-laden rise to become a European power.

For City it was a virtuous circle: winning titles led to earning more prize money and building a global brand that led to attracting more of the world’s best players, like today’s superstar goal scorer Erling Haaland.

Al Mubarak held firm when the story of the judgment leaked

The devastating judgment, which City can appeal, said the club broke Premier League rules designed to keep clubs financially stable and secure, and which rivals like Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United complied with.

Reports of the pending verdict leaked Friday to The Athletic, and the club responded a day later with a statement from Al Mubarak.

“Here’s what I said to my family,” he said. “The Premier League process still has a long way to run, and our confidence and intent in proving the Club’s innocence is just as strong as when this began.”

Al Mubarak says the club represents Abu Dhabi's values

In a rare interview in 2009, with British daily The Guardian, he spoke of City as representing Abu Dhabi's values. "These are loyalty, commitment, discipline, long-term thinking, respect, appreciation of history.”

“This is showing the world the true essence of who Abu Dhabi is and what Abu Dhabi is about,” he said.

Al Mubarak was an elegant, articulate embodiment of a project many saw as an extension of Abu Dhabi soft power as much as a sheikh’s personal investment. He also is chairman of City Football Group, the global network of 12 clubs anchored by Man City that includes New York City FC.

A graduate in economics from Tufts University near Boston, he oversees the Mubadala wealth fund among a slew of key government positions.

His family suffered personal tragedy in public service

Al Mubarak's father, Khalifa Al Mubarak, was a diplomat who served as the UAE’s ambassador to France.

He was assassinated in Paris in February 1984, shot on a street outside his residence close to the Eiffel Tower. Khaldoon Al Mubarak was 8. The killing was linked to the Abu Nidal Organization, a violent group calling for Israel's destruction.

Gulf media has reported that the young Khaldoon was mentored by the royal family in the wake of his father's death. In 2018 a street in Abu Dhabi was renamed for the slain diplomat.

Hacked emails revealed the malfeasance

As Man City's finances and compliance with soccer's rules came under more scrutiny, including by UEFA investigations judged in 2014 and 2020, Al Mubarak's public comments were limited to end-of-season interviews filmed and conducted by the club's own staff.

A landmark UEFA case in 2020 — won by City on an appeal that overturned a two-year ban from the Champions League — and the Premier League case were sparked by internal club emails and documents obtained by a hacker-whistleblower.

They were published in a series of articles by German magazine Der Spiegel in November 2018, that gave insight into the City chairman's resolve for a legal battle.

In 2014, when UEFA's then-general secretary, now FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, was in talks with Man City about settling a rules breach with a fine, the club's lawyer Simon Cliff sent an email with a line yet to be forgotten.

“Khaldoon said," Cliff wrote, "he would rather spend 30 million on the 50 best lawyers in the world to sue them for the next 10 years.”

___

See AP’s full soccer coverage here

The school is located at 16700 SW 48th Court.

MFR officials said crews were called to the school at approximately 11:15 a.m. after receiving a report of a “sick individual.”

When firefighters arrived, they encountered a group of children who had been affected by the release of pepper spray in a classroom. The incident was upgraded to a mass-casualty incident, according to MFR.

Authorities said 26 students were triaged, with one student treated at the scene. No children were transported to the hospital.

Miramar police said several students experienced minor coughing and were evaluated by fire rescue crews as a precaution.

Police said there was no ongoing threat to the school community.

Miramar police said they’re investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident.

Officials did not immediately provide additional information about how the pepper spray was released or whether anyone would face disciplinary or criminal action.

The report outlined showed dirty and overflowing restrooms, along with detainees who whistleblowers claimed are forced to sleep on the concrete floor or in chains.

Wasserman Schultz said conditions at the facility, located at 2805 SW 145th Ave., remain disgusting, but in some ways have improved.

She said the overcrowding has dramatically decreased from 70 to a room to about 20 people and toilets are also working.

She said she also didn’t see an overflowing of sewage, as documented in previously-released photos.

However, the congresswoman said many of the rooms remain filthy and healthcare is nonexistent in the facility.

Despite over 100 people being held at the facility, there isn’t a single nurse or a doctor, Wasserman Schultz said, and any sick inmates have to be sent to a nearby hospital.

Showers for men are also rare, she said.

And despite a court order that says the facility cannot hold people longer than 12 hours, Wasserman Schultz said detainees told her personally several have been there for nearly a week.

She said constant pressure from people and organizations to resolve the conditions led to several issues being resolved due to the continuous pressure.

“This treatment is unconstitutional torture. I mean, that is what this treatment is: unconstitutional torture. They are making a mockery of our laws,” Wasserman Schultz said. “A court order, right now, prohibits them from holding people for more than 12 hours. They acknowledged essentially they are holding people for more than 12 hours. They ― I asked detainees ― and there were detainees that said that they had been there for days."

Wasserman Schultz said detainees are being sent to other ICE facilities around the country to further be processed, further taking them away from their families locally.

She said she and other officials plan to continue putting pressure on the facility until conditions improve further.

The indictment against 36-year-old Ivanna Lisette Ortiz of Orlando was unsealed Wednesday by a judge.

Ortiz, appearing in court wearing yellow jail clothes, spoke only to her attorney, who entered a not guilty plea for her. The judge then ordered her held on $2.6 million bail.

The move came a day after another judge ruled that Ortiz is mentally competent to stand trial. The secret grand jury proceedings were held as the woman was undergoing months of psychiatric evaluation, and the case that appeared stalled — possibly permanently — is now on a fast-track to trial.

“This is a person who wanted to kill Rihanna,” Deputy District Attorney Alexander Bott said outside court. “Everyone else was collateral damage.”

Ortiz was previously charged in March with Rihanna’s attempted murder and more than a dozen other felony charges, and she pleaded not guilty. No one was injured, but bullets tore through an Airstream trailer that the singing superstar and A$AP Rocky were in at the time. Shots also struck the wall of their nursery where their three small children were with their nanny.

The grand jury indictment supersedes the original charges. And the secret proceedings allow prosecutors to skip California’s preliminary hearing process, where evidence must be presented publicly to see if a trial is merited.

The indictment also charges Ortiz with 10 counts of assault with an assault weapon and three counts of shooting at an inhabited dwelling or camper. She could get life in prison if convicted of all counts.

Reports have been sealed on the psychiatric evaluations that paused the case shortly after it began, and there was no public discussion of the details of her mental state. Prosecutors have not said anything about a motive or cited any connection between Rihanna and Ortiz, a longtime licensed speech pathologist with no prior criminal record.

Authorities allege she drove a Tesla from Orlando to the Beverly Hills-area property of Rihanna and her rapper partner A$AP Rocky on March 8, pointed an AR-15 style rifle out the window and fired at least 20 rounds toward the property and a neighboring house.

Investigators found bullet holes in the trailer and on the exterior wall of the home’s second-floor nursery, where the children and nanny were present. Rihanna’s mother and several staffers also were in the home.

Investigators said that after her arrest later that day, Ortiz told them: “I wasn’t attempting murder.”

A nine-time Grammy Award winner, Rihanna has had 14 No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including “We Found Love,” “Work,” “Umbrella” and “Disturbia.”

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Firefighters responded to the area of Northwest Ninth Street and 10th Avenue just after 2 a.m., where they encountered massive flames.

The fire has since been extinguished, but a side-by-side, four other vehicles and a portion of the home were damaged.

Firefighters said the blaze started with the ATV, though it remains unclear what caused it to catch fire.

Police officers later confirmed to Local 10 News that an arson investigation was underway.

Security footage shows one of the vehicles bursting into flames.

“I thought it was going to explode because there was, like, at least three cars over there that caught on fire at the same time, so we were just, you know, worried that it might be a bigger thing,” neighbor Hilda Palma said. “But I was also worried because since the house was already on fire as well, I didn’t know if there were people in there, because the front of the door was getting on fire.”

No injuries were reported.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue officials took canisters of evidence from the vehicles to see if this could have been a case of arson.

The official cause of the fire, however, remains under investigation.

They are automated license plate readers that snap pictures of passing cars and keep a database that police officers can search through.

Advocates say the cameras can help solve crimes, find stolen cars and track missing people, but there are those who feel there are privacy concerns.

Earlier this month, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered all flock cameras and other license plate readers to be removed from state highways.

The next day, Miami-Dade Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz not only did that, but went further and suspended its entire program.

The day after, so did Pembroke Pines.

Right as you enter the city of Hollywood, just as you pass the Welcome to Hollywood sign, you’re greeted by a flock camera.

It’s right near the intersection of Pembroke Road and South Park Road.

Several South Florida mayors, including Miami Beach, Sunny Isles Beach and Aventura, asked the governor to reconsider his order, signing a letter and noting the cameras have solved crimes while worrying that no transition plan could put public safety at risk.

Miramar has dozens of cameras, including one near the intersection of Miramar Parkway and Southwest 64th Avenue.

So does Fort Lauderdale, where last month police said someone damaged two cameras.

The city of Miami’s newly passed budget gives police nearly $150,000 in what’s being called “investigative tech” upgrades.

Watchdogs fear that’s going toward flock cameras.

DeFlock, an open-source project tracking cameras around the country, lists thousands in South Florida, most of them flock cameras.

Federal lawmakers are looking into concerns they can make mistakes.

Lindsey Isaacs was wrongfully arrested and jailed for 13 days in Central Florida after a camera mistakenly identified her as a driver involved in a fatal hit-and-run.

She testified during a U.S. Senate hearing last week.

“I was placed in solitary confinement for approximately three and a half days,” she said.

The gunfire erupted at approximately 9:53 p.m. in the area of the 600 block of Northwest Fifth Avenue.

According to the Miami Police Department, officers responded to the scene in reference to a Shot Spotter alert.

Upon arrival, police said they found two men who had been shot.

Miami Fire Rescue officials said the men’s ages ranged between 20 and 30, and both were listed in serious and critical condition.

Both men were rushed by MFR crews to the Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

Dispatch audio obtained by Local 10 News indicates that one of the men was shot in the knee and the other man was struck multiple times, including in the head and body.

Local 10 News cameras captured police appearing to focus part of their investigation on a white Mercedes-Benz sedan that appeared to have a bullet hole in the windshield.

It wasn’t until around 4 a.m. that the Mercedes and a black Lexis IS sedan were towed away from the scene.

Investigators said they are working to determine the circumstances that led up to the shooting.

Police did not say whether they were seeking any suspects or persons of interest.

Burnham said U.K. and U.S. officials are carrying out a “complex and serious” investigation into how and why five men and three vans were near the perimeter of RAF Fairford, a base that has been used by American bombers striking Iran during this year's war.

Five British men in their 20s were arrested Sunday on suspicion of explosives offenses and planning an act of terror, before being released on bail a day later. Police say they found a quantity of an accelerant – gasoline – in the vans, but no explosives.

Burnham did not provide details about what the suspects were planning or why the U.K. thinks Iran was involved. He said he would “update people more in due course.”

“There are strong indications that Iran played a part in what happened over the weekend at RAF Fairford, but of course it remains an ongoing, complex, and serious police investigation,” Burnham told the BBC in one of a series of interviews with British broadcasters. “And of course, we are working closely with our colleagues in the United States of America.”

Iran has denied involvement in the incident. It has previously said that it considers any base used to attack its territory a legitimate target.

The base 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of London has been used by American bombers during decades of conflicts in the Middle East, including this year’s war with Iran.

Top U.S. officials have criticized the decision to grant the suspects bail, with President Donald Trump saying “I wouldn’t have done that" and Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying a lot of people were “disturbed” by the move.

Burnham said authorities have the investigation under “the strongest grip and the closest control,” and British officials had been “talking to counterparts in the United States all week to explain what is happening here, how things are being done.”

“I have complete confidence in the way British security services are handling this,” he told the BBC.

Laurence Taylor, the head of British counterterror policing, said Tuesday that the suspects remain under investigation and the decision to grant bail was grounded in “experience and strategy.”

He said a line of inquiry is whether the suspected offenses were committed by “proxies or individuals, either knowingly or unknowingly, working on behalf of a foreign state.”

The arrests came at a time of heightened tensions around the threat from hostile states, with British security services saying Russia and Iran have both used proxies to commit crimes on U.K. soil. British officials have said the number of national security cases involving activity by hostile states, including Iran, increased by 50% in the six months to December 2025.

U.K. officials also say proxies linked to Iran have been behind a string of arsons and other attacks in the U.K. and other countries, many of them targeting the Jewish community and intended to sow fear. They have previously warned that Tehran could expand its targets in the U.K. if conflicts in the Middle East continue.

Noem, who was tasked with leading President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown from January 2025 to March 2026 and previously served as South Dakota's governor, is seeking a divorce from Bryon Noem in their home state. The two married in May 1992 and have three children.

The filing, made in April but posted online on Monday, comes after questions arose earlier this year about the nature of Kristi Noem's relationship with a top adviser. The complaint, filed in Hamlin County, notes “irreconcilable differences” as grounds for the divorce.

In a statement, Kristi Noem's attorney confirmed she has filed for divorce and said she will reserve further comments for the legal process. Lawyers for Bryon Noem did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A day before Noem was ousted from her post in Trump's cabinet, members of Congress questioned her about an alleged extramarital affair with Corey Lewandowski, a special government employee and one of the secretary’s lead advisers. He was Trump’s first campaign manager in 2016 and appeared to play an outsized role in Noem's department, even though his position was supposed to have a limit on days worked.

Noem denied the allegations that they were having an affair, dismissing them as “tabloid garbage.”

Once a close ally to Trump, Noem became a liability for the Republican president as questions arose over her conduct following the shooting deaths of two protesters in Minneapolis at the hands of immigration officers. Noem characterized both Renee Good and Alex Pretti as aggressors, contradicting videos from the scene and descriptions of their deaths from bystanders. She also faced criticism from fellow Republicans for her spending at her department.

Trump nominated Markwayne Mullin, then a U.S. senator from Oklahoma, in Noem's place and made her a special envoy for The Shield of the Americas, a new security initiative focused on the Western Hemisphere.

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Schoenbaum reported from Salt Lake City, Utah.

Teams averaged 29,589 for 2,425 dates, a 0.4% increase from the average of 29,471 last year, when attendance totaled 71.4 million. MLB attendance has risen in four straight seasons for the first time since 2004-07.

Thirteen teams had increases and 17 dropped.

Tampa Bay had the biggest increase, up 628,255 to 1,414,975 as the Rays won the AL East for the first time since 2021. The Rays spent 2025 at Steinbrenner Field, the New York Yankees’ spring training ballpark, while damage to their stadium from Hurricane Milton was repaired. Steinbrenner Field's capacity for the Rays was 10,046, and they drew up to 28,055 this year at the Trop.

Five clubs topped 3 million, down from six last year and matching 2024. There were eight in 2023.

The two-time World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers led the sport with a team-record 4,034,219, an average of 49,805.

The Chicago White Sox, who earned an AL wild card this year by finishing with an 84-78 record following three straight 100-loss seasons, rose 540,687 to 1,986,425.

Toronto, coming off an AL pennant in 2025, increased 488,943 to 3,338,878, and Seattle, which came within one win of reaching its first World Series in 2025, rose 345,745 to 2,883,798.

The New York Mets, who entered the season with the sport's highest payroll, had the biggest decline, a 472,450 drop to 2,712,120. The Mets had a 12-game losing streak in April and finished last in the NL East for the first time since 2003.

Houston fell 255,759 to 2,472,118 despite winning the AL West title — with an 81-81 record that was the poorest for a first-place team. Kansas City dropped 221,703 to 1,527,098 and Arizona, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Colorado and Philadelphia all experienced decreases of 100,000 to 200,000.

The Athletics, based for a second season at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, California, before a planned move to a new Las Vegas ballpark in 2028, drew a major league-low attendance of 799,240 and average of 9,867. They played six games at Las Vegas Ballpark, another minor league stadium, and averaged 9,983 in West Sacramento and 8,451 in Las Vegas.

Miami dropped from 28th to 29th in attendance at 1,231,018.

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

The incident occurred on Monday afternoon along the 18000 block of South Dixie Highway in Palmetto Bay.

According to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, the victim, who is a 15-year-old girl, and her mother were involved in an argument over the teen having run away the previous weekend.

Deputies said the victim advised the argument intensified once her mother’s live-in boyfriend, identified as Ulisses Gutierrez, got involved.

According to an arrest report, Gutierrez “grabbed the victim by her neck with both hands and squeezed hard, impeding her breathing for a few seconds” before he “pushed her into the laundry room closet door and pushed her to the ground twice.”

Deputies said the victim was left with red marks on her neck and an abrasion on her face.

Investigators at the scene spoke to Gutierrez. They said he denied all the allegations made by the victim, but he could not provide an explanation as to where her injuries came from.

Gutierrez was charged with one felony count of child abuse with no great bodily harm. As of Wednesday morning, he was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center with bond listed as “to be set.”

A sometimes-overlooked element of the bill designed to regulate name-image-likeness payments and myriad other problems in college sports is the protections it offers the smaller, non-revenue-generating “Olympic” sports. Hundreds of thousands of athletes across the country play these sports in college, and their talent leads to hundreds of medals for the U.S.

Exhibit A: Of the 257 U.S. athletes who won medals at the Paris Olympics two years ago, 184 had roots in an NCAA program.

That's why, at the urging of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, the bill includes language requiring most college programs, which devote the lion's share of their resources to football and basketball, to maintain the same number of scholarships and roster spots for Olympic sports as they had in the 2024-25 school year.

Another element of the bill adds a $27 million “retention pool” to the revenue-sharing cap schools are allowed to pay to athletes; $5 million of that has to be spent on women’s and Olympic sports.

While not a foolproof solution — some schools could ask for waivers and others could shift numbers around among different sports to dilute their investments — Olympic insiders believe the bill offers a sustainable remedy for what they consider a likely move away from non-revenue sports if schools are left to their own devices.

“The sky is not falling, but we're not going back to what used to be” whether the bill becomes law or not, Sarah Hirshland, the CEO of the USOPC, said last week at the annual USOPC Assembly. “We're not in a state of panic about Team USA not being able to compete in Los Angeles. But there are some things that really need to be fixed.”

With House passage uncertain, Olympic leaders study other solutions

Against that backdrop, leaders at the USOPC know that even if the bill passes the House, where it faces a steep climb, they need to plan for a future in which college programs cut Olympic sports to make ends meet.

A report released within the last month by the bill's co-sponsor, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said that since 2023, which is when the so-called “arms race” to obtain football and basketball talent shifted into high gear, colleges have eliminated more than 100 women’s and Olympic sports programs.

“I feel for the athletic directors because many of them are trying to run a business but they don't know what tomorrow is, and that makes it really difficult for long-term planning," said Rocky Harris, the USOPC's chief of sport and athlete services. “If you can't do long-term planning, you can't run a good business. And if they can't run a good business, then that impacts Olympics sports directly.”

Cantwell has cited the peril Olympic and women's sports face as the key reason she got involved in crafting the legislation.

The connection between, say, a starting quarterback's NIL haul and the U.S. gold medal count in LA two years from now exists because the U.S. government, unlike most governments around the globe, doesn't bankroll the Olympics or its pipeline. That leaves the task to the nation's grassroots sports organizations and, eventually, the U.S. college system, where football underwrites everything.

“I don't think people understand the connection between the money that's made by football and the success of our Olympic system,” said Cody Campbell, the billionaire from Texas Tech who has aired ads during Saturday college football games supporting the legislation.

LA Games should give participation a boost, but will colleges play along?

Harris, who led USA Triathlon before coming to the USOPC, said the push to make women's triathlon an “emerging sport” at the NCAA level was intended to give young girls a chance “to dream about doing triathlon.”

“Maybe they couldn't see themselves as Olympians, but many of them could see themselves as a college athlete and I knew that would drive our plan," Harris said.

Without college programs, Harris says, the potential elite athletes in a sport move on to other things. If those programs do exist that's how a pipeline begins.

In many ways, the doubts about the future of the Olympic movement come at a time when the United States should be preparing for an upswing in participation with the LA Olympics less than two years away. Hirshland cited numbers that showed participation in some Olympic sports grew between 25% and 35% after the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, the last time the Summer Games were held on U.S. soil.

“I'm still bullish that LA will actually accelerate that,” Hirshland said. “We're not going to see flat. We're going to see growth in the desire to do sports some people might have never contemplated.”

But where will the kids who discover fencing or wrestling or track during the LA Games play in college?

The thinking around the USOPC offices is that there will always be programs.

Oregon, for example, has always been a bastion for distance runners and probably won't do anything to detract from its iconic track program. Iowa's wrestling program has produced 24 national titles over the years.

What grabs more attention was the move Stanford made in 2020, when, citing financial pressures from the pandemic, it announced it was axing 11 varsity sports. Less than a year later, and under pressure from alumni and boosters, it reversed those decisions.

Still, if a deep-pocketed school like Stanford that had won 25 straight Directors' Cups — awarded for the overall strongest results across all collegiate sports — could cut programs because of financial pressure, then what school couldn't? Stanford's new athletic director, John Donahoe, was recently appointed to the USOPC's Collegiate Advisory Council, replacing his predecessor on The Farm, Bernard Muir.

Even if the bill passes and schools are required to maintain their numbers, the provision lapses in nine years at the biggest schools and four years at mid-sized universities, which is why the USOPC is doing work now.

Hirshland said she thinks there will be “more customization and differentiation, sport to sport,” based on what makes sense at each university.

“I'd like to believe our education system will remained anchored in sports," she said. “But if it doesn't, I'm confident there will be systems that emerge to pick up that demand and provide the experiences for people who want them. Our job is is to drive interest and ensure the infrastructure, and we're focused on both.”

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Records show Dylan Hugh Long, a 21-year-old senior originally from Lloyd Harbor, New York, was taken into custody on the UM campus on two felony charges on Tuesday morning.

According to an arrest report from the South Miami Police Department, Long’s roommate “discovered a hidden camera device emitting a blue light inside the middle compartment of his nightstand” on the morning of Sept. 12 and confronted Long, “who denied any involvement with the device.”

But police said the victim later “further examined the device and connected it to a power source, allowing him to access the files stored on it” and saw “multiple video files depicting Long operating and testing the same recording device prior to or during its use.”

Authorities said Long later texted the victim and convened a meeting between all of the roommates.

“During the meeting, Long was questioned about the device and initially denied any involvement,” the SMPD report states. “After several minutes of questioning, Long admitted that the concealed camera belonged to him and that he had placed it inside (his roommate’s) private bedroom. Long stated that he placed the device inside the bedroom because (the victim) had not responded to his text messages.”

Authorities said Long’s roommates kicked him out and the victim later found 49 video files on the device, some of which were corrupted, but after reviewing the usable files, the victim found “multiple recordings of himself inside his private bedroom, including recordings depicting him traveling to and from the shower without his knowledge or consent.”

Police said they went to the UM campus on Tuesday to take Long in for questioning. They said Long admitted to placing the camera “because he wanted to confirm that (his roommate) was reading his text messages.”

Detectives arrested Long on charges of video voyeurism and burglary. He appeared in bond court on Wednesday morning.

“This is an argument that happened between roommates and then turned a little different,” his attorney said over Zoom.

Long was ordered to stay away from the victim and the home, near Southwest 63rd Avenue and 62nd Terrace, save for a one-time visit with a police officer to retrieve his belongings.

Records show he was given a $3,500 bond and was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center as of Tuesday morning.

In a notice published Wednesday in the Federal Register, the State Department said it was amending its International Traffic in Arms Regulations, or ITAR, so that Syria no longer was among the nations subject to a policy of denial for licenses and other approvals needed for the sale of U.S. weapons and munitions.

The change effective Thursday means that arms sales requests from Syria will now be considered on a case-by-case basis.

President Donald Trump acted last year to ease economic sanctions on Syria that had been in place for decades during now-ousted President Bashar Assad’s rule. In August, Secretary of State Marco Rubio rescinded Syria’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, helping paving the way for the latest step in drawing closer to the current government.

The State Department has also announced plans to reopen the U.S. Embassy in Damascus. It has been closed for 14 years.

With Syria’s removal from the ITAR blacklist, only seven countries remain subject to the policy of denial for licenses for U.S. arms exports: Belarus, China, Cuba, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea and Venezuela.

Syria’s interim president, former rebel leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, overthrew the Assad government nearly two years ago and has embarked on a policy of change that has impressed the Trump administration. His moves have led to hopes of eventual stability in a country that was wracked by civil war and the Islamic State insurgency that engulfed northeast and western Iraq for years.

Wednesday’s withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq may mean that the Syrian government plays a greater role in preventing an IS resurgence.

Nelson succeeds Michael Baiamonte, who retired after 35 years as the voice of the Heat. Nelson becomes the third public address announcer in franchise history.

His first appearance behind the microphone is scheduled for Oct. 6 during the Heat’s annual Red, White and Pink Game, the team’s preseason scrimmage.

Nelson currently serves as president and CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Miami and the Florida Keys, a position he has held since 2006. During his tenure, he has overseen the organization’s mentoring and fundraising efforts and helped guide the agency to Agency of the Year honors in 2021.

The organization also received four consecutive National Pinnacle Awards from 2019 through 2022. Nelson has more than three decades of experience in nonprofit leadership.

Michael McCullough, the Heat’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer, said Nelson’s distinctive voice and style stood out during the selection process.

“Gale brings a unique style and his very distinctive voice to the PA announcer position,” McCullough said. “We were intrigued right from the start when we heard Gale, and we knew he could be exactly what we were looking for.”

Nelson was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, and grew up in Toledo, Ohio.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a focus on corporate finance from the University of Toledo and a master’s degree in management and administration of educational programs from Nova Southeastern University.

Nelson said he hopes to honor Baiamonte’s legacy while bringing his own personality to the role.

“I look forward to continuing the legacy that Michael Biamonte left at the Heat and creating my own journey with the organization,” Nelson said. “I am humbled and excited for Heat Nation to see who Gale is and showcase my personality and style that I will bring to the microphone this season.”

The Miami Heat begin their preseason at 7 p.m. Saturday when they face the Toronto Raptors at the Scotiabank Arena. Fans can watch that game on WPLG Local 10.

And don’t forget, you can also watch the majority of the Miami Heat’s regular season games, at least 68, on Local 10 next season as WPLG Local 10 and the Heat announced a newly expanded media rights agreement, making Local 10 the home of HEAT basketball across South Florida! CLICK HERE for more information on how to watch!

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

Introducing our new PA voice... Gale Nelson 🗣️

Meet Gale - https://t.co/4hYWTyyESe pic.twitter.com/LGs2AoRGC6

— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) September 30, 2026

Según el Departamento de Policía de Davie, los agentes acudieron el viernes a un accidente de un solo vehículo cerca de la intersección de Hiatus Road y Orange Drive.

La policía indicó que los agentes encontraron una camioneta Ford F-150 azul que se había estrellado contra una baranda de protección y derribado un tendido eléctrico, con Jordan Nelson al volante.

En el informe de arresto, uno de los agentes que respondió al llamado escribió que de inmediato percibió “un fuerte olor asociado a bebidas alcohólicas que salía de su cara, especialmente cuando hablaba”, y agregó que Nelson tenía “los ojos rojos y vidriosos, y arrastraba las palabras”.

Según los agentes, Nelson, de 36 años, aceptó hacer las pruebas de sobriedad en el lugar, pero no las pasó. Su nivel de alcohol en la sangre fue de 0.173% y 0.163%, ambos más del doble del límite legal de 0.08%.

Nelson fue acusado de manejar bajo la influencia (DUI), DUI con lesiones o daños a la propiedad, y DUI con un nivel de alcohol en la sangre superior a 0.15%.

Figura como uno de los cuatro candidatos que aspiran al escaño del Distrito 3 del concejo municipal de Davie.

Aun así, el mes logró reunir cuatro tormentas con nombre: Edouard, Fay, Gonzalo y Hanna. La única destacable fue Fay, que ha durado más que cualquier otra tormenta en lo que va de temporada y estuvo muy cerca de convertirse en el primer huracán del año a última hora del 21 de septiembre.

Oficialmente, los vientos de Fay alcanzaron un máximo de 70 mph, 4 mph por debajo del umbral de huracán. Sin embargo, el radar de apertura sintética (SAR), un instrumento de altísima resolución a bordo de un satélite de la Agencia Espacial Canadiense, estimó vientos de alrededor de 84 mph en su lado noroeste cerca de las 4:30 p.m., hora del Este, del 20 de septiembre.

Se sabe que el SAR tiende a sobreestimar los vientos: aproximadamente el 75% de sus estimaciones son más altas que las que calcula el Centro Nacional de Huracanes (NHC) a partir de los vuelos de reconocimiento. Pero este es precisamente el tipo de datos que el NHC revisa a fondo fuera de temporada para corregir, si hace falta, sus estimaciones en tiempo real.

Los mejores algoritmos tradicionales de estimación de vientos por satélite disponibles en ese momento indicaban vientos máximos de unas 70 mph, pero la lectura del SAR se produjo justo en un vacío notable de esas estimaciones basadas en inteligencia artificial. Si logramos terminar la temporada sin huracanes, algo que todavía está por verse, será interesante ver si el NHC eleva los vientos de Fay a fuerza de huracán en su evaluación final.

Hanna se despide, pero ¿intenta Fay un tercer regreso?

Hanna perdió buena parte de su estructura durante la noche y quedó reducida a un remolino de nubes bajas, sin tormentas, sobre el Atlántico Norte abierto. Se espera que su giro remanente se desplace sobre mar abierto sin volver a desarrollarse esta semana.

Mientras tanto, el NHC dio por muerta a Fay el martes por la tarde, pero la tormenta está haciendo todo lo posible por resurgir por tercera vez, con repetidas rondas de tormentas eléctricas cerca de su circulación remanente. Regrese o no esta Fay “zombi”, no representa una amenaza para nadie, salvo para los barcos que pasen por la zona.

Atentos al sur del Golfo a fines de la próxima semana

Como adelantamos en el boletín del martes, un fuerte frente frío de otoño avanzará por el sur de Estados Unidos a principios de la próxima semana, antes de estancarse sobre Florida y el Golfo más adelante.

Los modelos de largo plazo siguen apuntando a una baja probabilidad, de alrededor del 20%, de que se forme algún sistema tropical o subtropical en el extremo de este frente de cara al próximo fin de semana, el del 9 de octubre. Tanto los modelos de inteligencia artificial como los modelos tradicionales basados en la física muestran indicios de ello.

Habrá que esperar a ver cómo evolucionan las tendencias en los próximos días, pero la corriente en chorro subtropical estará activa sobre el norte del Golfo a fines de la próxima semana. Eso significa que cualquier sistema que intente formarse encontraría obstáculos si se desplazara hacia el norte, en dirección a Estados Unidos.

Por ahora no hay nada de qué preocuparse, pero es algo a lo que le daremos seguimiento.

Saphier, a radiologist and former Fox News Channel contributor, was advanced out of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on a 12 to 11 vote to serve as surgeon general after she was grilled at her confirmation hearing earlier this month about her stance on childhood vaccines.

She expressed support for vaccines and told lawmakers she didn’t believe they cause autism. The Trump administration has sought to revisit claims about a link between vaccines and autism, although widespread scientific consensus and decades of studies have firmly concluded there is none.

Timothy Westlake, who was nominated to serve as assistant secretary for mental health and substance use at the Department of Health and Human Services was also advanced out of committee on the same en bloc vote.

It was not immediately clear when the officials would face a full Senate vote for their confirmation but they are expected to be approved.

During her confirmation hearing, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy pressed Saphier to declare whether she believed there was a link between vaccines and autism. Saphier responded that she does “not believe childhood vaccines cause autism,” adding that “the MMR vaccine is our greatest tool for combating measles,” in response to a question by Cassidy over whether parents should give children that shot.

MMR stands for measles, mumps and rubella, and the president recently called for the shots to be spaced out, against the guidance of medical groups.

The surgeon general position carries limited policymaking power but serves as a loud megaphone as the nation’s top communicator to Americans on public health issues.

Cassidy, who led the inquiry into Saphier's views on vaccines, ultimately voted in support of her nomination.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, the ranking member of the Senate HELP committee, said ahead of Saphier's vote that he would vote down her nomination because in part Saphier “has questioned the need for the hepatitis B vaccine at birth, when the data science has been clear.”

“We need a surgeon general who will tell the truth about vaccines, not someone who misleads the public,” Sanders said. At her confirmation hearing, Saphier said the universal birth dose of hepatitis B was safe and effective.

Chris Klomp, who was nominated to serve as deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, was advanced out of the Senate Finance Committee last week on a 15 to 12 vote. He was questioned during the same hearing as Saphier about his duties associated with the role as the current chief counselor of the Department of Health and Human Services under the leadership of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as well as about his vaccine stance.

In protesting Klomp's nomination at the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Ron Wyden said Klomp “tried to create the impression that he will be the adult in the room on vaccines. Yet, as we sit here today, the vaccine chaos that we’ve come to expect from Robert Kennedy’s HHS continues.”

The announcement on plans for the national park, made in two court filings late Tuesday, gave no details on what the government may do. In August, the Republican administration initiated a pause on construction-related activity in the park as it engaged in outreach efforts to opponents of the project. The pause ends Wednesday.

Customs and Border Protection is “actively considering adjustments" to the work "that would reduce its scope and avoid or minimize potential impacts, based on input received from the National Park Service and other stakeholders,” the government said in the court filing.

The agency said it will make a final decision the first week in October and will take “several weeks” after that announcement before any “ground-disturbing work” starts.

After intense opposition from environmentalists and local residents and business owners, CBP backed off plans this year to build a 30-foot-tall bollard wall through the park. But its intention to move forward with other measures such as a new road, lights, vehicle barriers and technology did not quell local resistance.

After bulldozers were spotted in August clearing land in Big Bend, CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott announced a pause on all activity there and it was later expanded to the area upstream of the park. The agency has said it was only carrying out design and planning work, not full-scale construction activities.

Opponents of the border project called on the administration Wednesday to continue the pause while coming up with a new plan.

Bob Krumenaker, head of Keep Big Bend Wild and a former NPS superintendent at the park, said in a statement that the Border Patrol already works with the park service and local sheriffs to operate an “effective surveillance system” in Big Bend that includes ground sensors and patrols. The Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks said building in the park would be “mutilating an extraordinary landscape.”

The project is part of a $46 billion plan by the administration to line the U.S.-Mexico border with steel bollard walls, vehicle barriers and surveillance technology to deter migrants and smugglers.

The government has also paused work on a 61-mile piece of land stretching north of the national park along the Rio Grande River, most of which is owned by private landowners. In that area, the government plans to build a 30-foot-tall steel bollard wall designed to prevent people on foot from crossing, roads and various types of surveillance technology where appropriate, according to the court filing.

CBP has started building the wall in a West Texas part of the broader Big Bend region, but has run into intense opposition there, including from landowners challenging the project in court.

Also in the court filing Tuesday, the government suggested it was facing resistance in getting permission from landowners to survey and build on their property and would be referring some cases to the Department of Justice to pursue condemnation.

The government also detailed efforts it had made to meet with people potentially affected by Big Bend projects and shared with them incidents of cartel-related violence that concerned the Border Patrol.

The administration has been pushing forward with the border wall projects that have long been a key part of President Donald Trump's vision for border security. The agency said it is building 12 miles (19 kilometers) of wall per week.

But lining up against the work are private landowners, Native American tribes, environmental groups and others who question the necessity and cost of the project at a time when illegal immigration has fallen dramatically. Opponents also have accused the government of damaging Native American sites and sensitive ecology locations in its rush to finish construction.

According to the Davie Police Department, officers responded to a single-vehicle crash near the intersection of Hiatus Road and Orange Drive on Friday.

Police said officers found a blue Ford F-150 that had crashed into a guardrail, knocking over a power line, and Jordan Nelson behind the wheel.

A responding officer noted in Nelson’s arrest report that the officer “was immediately met with the strong smell associated with an alcoholic beverage which emanated from his facial area, especially as he spoke,” while adding that Nelson’s “eyes were red and glossy, and he was slurring his speech.”

Officers said Nelson, 36, agreed to perform field sobriety tests, which he did not pass, and his blood alcohol level was measured at 0.173% and 0.163%, both of which are more than twice the legal limit of 0.08%.

Nelson has since been charged with DUI, DUI with injury or property damage and DUI with blood alcohol level above 0.15%.

He is listed as one of four candidates running for Davie’s District 3 town council seat.

The month did manage to scrounge up four named storms – Edouard, Fay, Gonzalo, and Hanna. The only noteworthy of these tropical storms was Fay, which lasted longer than any other storm so far this season and flirted with becoming the season’s first hurricane late on Sept. 21.

Though officially Fay’s winds topped out at 70 mph – 4 mph shy of the threshold for a hurricane – an instrument profiler from the very high-resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar or SAR aboard a Canadian Space Agency satellite estimated winds on its northwest side of around 84 mph around 4:30 p.m. ET on Sept. 20.

SAR is known to have a high bias in its wind estimates (roughly 75% of SAR wind estimates are higher than what’s estimated by NHC from aircraft reconnaissance), but this is the kind of data NHC will comb through in the off season to, if necessary, revise its real-time estimates.

The best traditional satellite wind estimate algorithms at the time suggested maximum winds of around 70 mph but the SAR reading came during a noticeable gap in those AI-driven estimates. If we’re able to make it through the rest of the season with no hurricanes (still a big if), it’ll be interesting to see whether NHC nudges Fay’s winds up to hurricane strength in its post-season assessment.

Hanna on its last leg but is pesky Fay trying to stage a third comeback?

Hanna had a heavy haircut overnight and has been reduced to a naked, low-level swirl of clouds over the open North Atlantic. Its leftover spin is expected to move harmlessly over the open seas without redeveloping this week.

Meanwhile, Fay was declared dead by NHC Tuesday afternoon but is doing its best to mount a third comeback, with repeated rounds of thunderstorms firing near its remnant circulation. Whether zombie Fay returns or not, it’s no threat to anyone outside of passerby ships in the area.

Keeping an eye on the southern Gulf for late next week

As we previewed in Tuesday’s newsletter, a strong fall cold front will dig through the southern U.S. early next week before stalling over Florida and the Gulf later in the week.

Long range models continue to suggest a low chance (around 20%) of tropical or subtropical mischief headed into next weekend (the weekend of Oct. 9) from the tail of this front. Both the AI models and traditional physics-based models are hinting at this.

We’ll have to wait and see what the trends look like in the coming days, but the subtropical jet stream will be kicking over the northern Gulf late next week, which means anything that does try to develop would have some impediments if it moved northward toward the U.S.

For now, it’s nothing to worry about but something we’ll follow.

Júnior, 59, is running for Congress for the first time. But until Oct. 4, he is Plínio Trump, channeling U.S. President Donald Trump with his hairstyle, long orange tie, firm handshake and even his stride.

“(Trump) is likeable, iconic," Plínio Trump told The Associated Press late Monday after campaigning in Juiz de Fora, a city of 570,000 residents 180 kilometers (111 miles) west of Rio de Janeiro. "Few people sneered at me. Most people smile and hug me."

Candidates like Plínio Trump are part of a Brazilian tradition that spans nearly eight decades. Whether called protest candidates or joke candidates, they bring a surreal element to congressional elections. To run, they must belong to one of Brazil's 30 political parties and meet the same eligibility requirements as other candidates, including the country's clean-record rules.

This year, a few hundred of those are among more than 7,800 candidates running for a seat in Congress, with even more running for state legislatures.

Paradoxically, while these entertaining figures can attract voters disillusioned with traditional politics, the ballots cast for them also add to their parties' total under Brazil's electoral system. More votes for joke candidates can translate into more seats in Congress — and more public funds for the very apparatus that protest voters are trying to reject.

‘Barack Obama’ and ’Mick Jagger' enter the race

Trump is not the only U.S. politician with admirers in Brazil’s congressional race.

Henrique Barack Obama, born Cláudio Henrique dos Anjos, has even loftier ambitions. After previous runs for office in Rio de Janeiro, he is seeking one of the two Senate seats at stake in the Federal District, home to Brazil’s capital, Brasilia. But even those who have seen him up close acknowledge that the 57-year-old bears little resemblance to the former U.S. president.

“It is more about his posture,” said Claudio Santos, 33, who knows the Brazilian Obama from his time in Rio. “He also likes the attention that the name brings, obviously. When he wasn't running for office, he would pose as Obama during Flamengo soccer games.”

Another novelty candidate, Mick Jagger, whose real name is Walcy Calixto Vieira, is again running for a seat in the legislature of the central state of Goias. He is no rock'n'roll frontman, but a 66-year-old carpenter with shaggy hair and brow-skimming bangs.

Other candidates skip celebrity impersonations and opt instead for catchy aliases. “Tsunami Grandmother,” whose real name is Scheile Aparecida Soares Brandão, is seeking a seat in the Minas Gerais state legislature. “Who Who," born Francisco das Chagas Costa Oliveira, is running for the legislature in the northeastern state of Piaui.

“Lonely Boy,” or Marcelo da Rosa, is a truck driver from Parana state seeking a seat in Congress, and then there is Severino Cardoso Sobrinho, better known as Samurai Taxi Driver, a nunchaku master featured in Instagram videos who is running for the state legislature in Pernambuco, the home state of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

A tradition dating back to the 1950s

Brazil's tradition of novelty candidates dates back to 1959, when roughly 100,000 voters in São Paulo wrote the name of Cacareco, a female rhinoceros from the city zoo, on their paper ballots in a city council election. Electoral authorities later invalidated the votes.

Such political stunts disappeared during Brazil’s military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985. But the country's return to national elections in 1989 featured one of its most memorable presidential candidates: Dr. Enéas Carneiro, a respected cardiologist who delivered rapid-fire, complex speeches in 15-second radio and television spots. Many Brazilians found his breathless delivery hilarious.

“My name is Enéas!” he shouted into the camera at the end of every ad. Carneiro pulled in 360,000 votes in Brazil’s first direct presidential election since 1960.

Five years later, with voters still angered with the corruption scandal that led to President Fernando Collor’s impeachment, Carneiro finished third, drawing 4.6 million votes behind Lula and eventual winner Fernando Henrique Cardoso.

The movement reached a new high in 2010, when Tiririca, a circus clown and comedian, won a congressional seat for São Paulo with more than 1.3 million votes. His campaign slogans included, “It can’t get any worse” and, “What does a federal congressman do? I really don’t know. Vote for me and I will find out for you!”

Francisco Everardo Oliveira Silva, nicknamed Tiririca by his mother for looking perpetually angry as a child, served four consecutive terms. He is seeking a fifth, representing his native Ceara state in Brazil’s northeast. In 2022, he secured 70,000 votes to retain his job.

Carlos Melo, a political science professor at Insper university in São Paulo, said candidates like Tiririca punch above their weight because of Brazil’s proportional representation system. Votes for candidates go to their party and are then distributed proportionally.

“Some of these candidates have enough votes to win their own seats, but others just add 1,000 or 2,000 votes to their parties. They don’t get seats, but they help their parties secure a bigger slice of Congress and public funds,” Melo said. “Nowadays, we see many more of these bizarre candidates because traditional political leadership is decomposing. People who would normally fill these roles are opting out of institutional politics.”

As Plínio Trump wrapped up campaigning in Juiz de Fora and prepared to return to Varginha — a city 400 kilometers (248 miles) west of Rio de Janeiro nationally famous for its alleged UFO landing site — he acknowledged that his decision to campaign as the U.S. president goes beyond physical resemblance.

“We have few options on the right in Brazil,” he said. “For me, Trump is a right-wing reference.”

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Savarese reported from São Paulo.

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

Could he actually start against the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium? Maybe.

Washington coach Dan Quinn said Wednesday it’s “too early to call” if Daniels, who was injured in Week 2 against the Dallas Cowboys, would return after missing last week's game against the Seattle Seahawks.

“But as we’re working through the week, he’ll get more reps,” Quinn said at a news conference after the team arrived in the U.K. “As we get into Thursday and Friday, we’ll see what that load looks like.

“By Friday we’ll have a definite determination of where we’re at,” Quinn continued. “Until then, we’ll work and start the process, but it would be too early to call.”

Marcus Mariota started last week and threw three touchdown passes in the 33-31 win over defending champion Seattle.

The Commanders' session Wednesday was described by Quinn as a light “jog-through” not in pads. Were it a regular practice, Daniels would have officially been “limited,” the coach explained.

Daniels did some light footwork and passing drills, as well as taking snaps under center and simulating a handoff with the ball in his left, non-throwing hand — all with a big, restrictive brace holding his elbow at an angle.

It's the second elbow dislocation for Daniels, who missed most of the second half of last season with the same injury.

“Any athlete would probably tell you when you are going through something a second time, there’s a known of what the road looks like," Quinn said. "We just don’t know yet.

“We’re not going to put him out there before he’s ready,” he continued. “Him being back on the field is like, man that’s a good step for us, and then we’ll take it from there.”

The Colts beat the Houston Texans 19-17 on Sunday, ending a nine-game losing streak.

Should I stay or should I go now?

Sunday’s game offers another contrast in the sports science debate about when to arrive in a country for an international game.

The Commanders are in town two days before the Colts — a significant but not huge difference.

A year ago, the Los Angeles Rams landed in London just 30 hours before kickoff against the Jacksonville Jaguars, who had arrived Tuesday of that week. The Rams then routed the Jags 35-7 at Wembley Stadium.

The Rams took a similar approach for their season opener in Melbourne, Australia, against the San Francisco 49ers, who choose to go Down Under a week in advance. The Niners prevailed 27-7.

Nice digs

NFL teams typically stay in fancy hotels located far from central London. The Commanders are at The Grove, a luxury hotel 20 miles (32 kilometers) northwest of the city, and it includes a practice field.

If Quinn or his players get bored with football, they can book horse riding lessons, pumpkin picking or an afternoon tea. Tiger Woods won an event at the hotel's golf course in 2006. They could also do a tour at the nearby Warner Bros. Studio.

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See AP’s full NFL coverage here

Bednar, who has coach the Avalanche to a 445–262–75 record during his tenure, led the team to a Stanley Cup title in 2022 behind a nucleus that included Cale Makar, Nathan MacKinnon and captain Gabriel Landeskog.

The team gave Bednar a vote of confidence in the offseason after being swept in the Western Conference Final. Bednar said leading into training camp they were in discussions to get a deal completed. It's the second big deal the Avalanche completed over the summer. The team also locked up Makar, a two-time Norris Trophy winner, to the richest deal in league history.

Bednar was hired in August 2016 following the resignation of coach Patrick Roy. The 54-year-old Bednar is currently the second-longest tenured coach in the NHL, trailing only Jon Cooper of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

“Jared has done an outstanding job over the last decade, and there’s no doubt in my mind he’s the best coach for this group," Joe Sakic, the Avalanche's president of hockey operations/general manager, said in a statement. "He commands the room and has complete confidence of the players. We’re excited to continue to have him in charge, and we believe that his presence maximizes the team’s potential while this core group is intact.”

Bednar brings a sense of calm to the bench, which his players appreciate. The team has been to the playoffs in every season but one under Bednar — his first, in 2016-17, when the team went 22-56-4. He's the 13th head coach (14th occasion) in league history to take the same organization to the postseason in at least nine straight seasons.

His team was the Presidents' Trophy winner last year with a franchise-best 121 points and is expected to be another strong Cup contender this season.

“I look forward to working hard each day this season,” Bednar said, "and beyond to accomplish our goal of winning another Stanley Cup.”

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See AP’s full NHL coverage here

Según la policía, su madre, Nathalie Belizaire, había zarpado el viernes a bordo del Carnival Conquest en un viaje de tres días de Miami a las Bahamas.

El jefe de la policía de North Miami Beach, Juan Pinillos, dijo que los niños estuvieron solos durante al menos 48 horas.

“Cualquiera que tenga hijos sabe que una bebé de dos meses necesita muchísima atención”, dijo Pinillos.

Los agentes informaron que tuvieron que entrar a la fuerza al apartamento, en la zona del Northeast 15th Avenue y la 170th Street, donde encontraron a los cuatro niños “escondidos” en el baño.

“Solo agradecemos que no les haya pasado nada peor a esos niños”, dijo el martes por la mañana en la corte la jueza de circuito del condado Miami-Dade Mindy Glazer.

Agentes de la Oficina de Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza de EE.UU., de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade y de la policía de North Miami Beach esperaban a Belizaire, de 29 años, cuando regresó el lunes a PortMiami.

“La arrestaron cuando bajaba del crucero”, dijo Glazer.

Según los registros de reclusos, Belizaire fue procesada a la 1:25 p.m. del lunes en el centro correccional Turner Guilford Knight.

“Sean responsables. Dejar a un bebé solo, desatendido y sin supervisión es un delito grave”, advirtió Pinillos.

El martes, la Fiscalía presentó un caso por delito grave contra Belizaire, quien enfrenta cuatro cargos de negligencia infantil sin daño corporal grave. Glazer emitió cuatro órdenes de alejamiento y le fijó una fianza de $10,000.

Al salir de la cárcel el martes por la noche, Belizaire negó los cargos y aseguró que los niños debían estar bajo la supervisión de su padre.

La jueza de circuito del condado Miami-Dade Marisa Tinkler Mendez presidirá el caso.

Según la policía, su madre, Nathalie Belizaire, había zarpado el viernes a bordo del Carnival Conquest en un viaje de tres días de Miami a las Bahamas.

El jefe de la policía de North Miami Beach, Juan Pinillos, dijo que los niños estuvieron solos durante al menos 48 horas.

“Cualquiera que tenga hijos sabe que una bebé de dos meses necesita muchísima atención”, dijo Pinillos.

Los agentes informaron que tuvieron que entrar a la fuerza al apartamento, en la zona del Northeast 15th Avenue y la 170th Street, donde encontraron a los cuatro niños “escondidos” en el baño.

“Solo agradecemos que no les haya pasado nada peor a esos niños”, dijo el martes por la mañana en la corte la jueza de circuito del condado Miami-Dade Mindy Glazer.

Agentes de la Oficina de Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza de EE.UU., de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade y de la policía de North Miami Beach esperaban a Belizaire, de 29 años, cuando regresó el lunes a PortMiami.

“La arrestaron cuando bajaba del crucero”, dijo Glazer.

Según los registros de reclusos, Belizaire fue procesada a la 1:25 p.m. del lunes en el centro correccional Turner Guilford Knight.

“Sean responsables. Dejar a un bebé solo, desatendido y sin supervisión es un delito grave”, advirtió Pinillos.

El martes, la Fiscalía presentó un caso por delito grave contra Belizaire, quien enfrenta cuatro cargos de negligencia infantil sin daño corporal grave. Glazer emitió cuatro órdenes de alejamiento y le fijó una fianza de $10,000.

La jueza de circuito del condado Miami-Dade Marisa Tinkler Mendez presidirá el caso.

Llegó la temporada de sustos, y Local 10 News quiere ver cómo te estás contagiando del espíritu de Halloween.

Si tu casa está decorada con telarañas escalofriantes, calabazas iluminadas, esqueletos gigantes, cementerios embrujados u otros adornos que dan miedo y diversión al mismo tiempo, envíanos una foto para tener la oportunidad de aparecer al aire y en Local10.com.

Todas las fotos que recibamos se publicarán en una galería especial aquí abajo, para que nuestros lectores puedan recorrer las decoraciones más creativas, tenebrosas y exageradas de nuestra comunidad.

Pero la diversión de Halloween no termina ahí.

Cada noche, Local 10 también elegirá una foto de una casa “Spooktacular” para mostrarla al aire.

Ya sea que tu decoración dé miedo, dé risa, sea para toda la familia o completamente exagerada, queremos verla.

¡Feliz temporada de sustos, sur de Florida!

Para enviar tus fotos, haz clic aquí

The episodes have highlighted the vulnerabilities in AI security and raised questions over how the fast-growing technology can be developed safely as its usage becomes more widespread globally.

Industry critics have argued that many concerning events, including AI agents' hacks of external websites, are the result of security lapses on the part of the companies building the technology. But the AI agents' capabilities have raised widespread concerns about the possibility bots could break away and work toward their own agenda.

Below are some notable events:

Sept. 28: OpenAI halts rollout of a new model

The San Francisco-based company said it was delaying the release of a new model, called GPT-6.1 Astra, out of safety concerns voiced by its researchers. The company said the model had demonstrated leaps in completing tasks, but OpenAI needed to balance that capability against unauthorized behavior. “We have an extremely high bar in terms of safety and alignment,” said Saachi Jain, OpenAI’s head of safety systems.

Sept. 25: OpenAI says its agents interacted with US government websites

As part of a review of unanticipated behavior by its AI models, OpenAI said it discovered agents had interacted with several U.S. government websites in unexpected ways. The company's models accessed publicly available information on websites operated by the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as U.S. Census Bureau data. OpenAI said it did not find evidence of a compromise or vulnerability. On the same day, AI evaluator and research lab Transluce said it found that agents appearing to originate from OpenAI attempted a hack on the website of the Education Department's civil rights office, which did not succeed.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said on social media that there is an “extensive and ongoing review related to our agents’ use of internet access during training and evaluation.” The day after the disclosure, the company announced it was pausing the training of its most advanced models.

Sept. 24: Australia’s prime minister raises concern on breach

Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said an OpenAI agent infiltrated the public-facing Medicare Statistics Reporting Service portal on June 18. The portal hosted aggregate data about health spending and drug subsidies. No personal information had been accessed, the government said.

Albanese said the artificial intelligence company took too long to reveal the incident. The prime minister made the breach public following a telephone conversation with Altman. OpenAI said in a statement “our models took actions we did not intend.”

Sept. 18: Google says its Gemini AI hacked 3 companies

Google confirmed its Gemini AI model hacked three companies in May as part of a test of its cybersecurity capabilities. The company, which disclosed the hacks after an inquiry by The Wall Street Journal, said the model guessed passwords in one case and found passwords and credentials in a public repository in the other two cases. As in earlier such cases, the tests were being run by Irregular, a startup that describes itself as the “first frontier security lab."

Aug. 5: Meta's Muse goes rogue

Meta disclosed one of its AI models accessed the internet on its own and hacked another company. The company said that a “misconfiguration” during cybersecurity testing by Irregular inadvertently allowed one of its models to access the internet. A spokesperson for Irregular said the Meta episode involved a test-environment issue that was disclosed a week earlier by Anthropic.

July 30: Anthropic says its systems hacked 3 organizations

Anthropic said its artificial intelligence models hacked into three other organizations during testing. Anthropic, the San Francisco-based AI company behind Claude, posted on its website that it discovered the three incidents after reviewing more than 141,000 evaluation runs. In all three incidents, the AI models were tasked with a “capture the flag” cybersecurity challenge, which Anthropic said has been one of the ways it assesses a model’s cyber capabilities.

The models were given a fictional scenario and told a piece of secret information, or the “flag,” had been hidden on a different machine on the network with the objective of breaking in and retrieving it, it said. Anthropic said it reached out to the organizations, but it did not name them publicly.

July 21:

The Hugging Face incident

The ChatGPT maker OpenAI announced that its artificial intelligence system hacked into another AI company on its own in what the company called an “unprecedented cyber incident.”

A week earlier, AI startup Hugging Face said, it had detected an intrusion into its data processing systems that it suspected was caused by an AI agent autonomously acting on its own.

OpenAI said its AI used stolen credentials and discovered a previously unknown vulnerability to access Hugging Face servers. It was working with reduced guardrails because it was supposed to be in an isolated testing environment known as a sandbox.

Tropical moisture will continue to funnel across Florida from the Caribbean. This will keep rain chances high through the rest of the work week. Perhaps by the weekend we will see fewer storms, but we will still be far from dry.

Los disparos se produjeron alrededor de las 9:53 p.m. en la zona de la cuadra 600 del Northwest Fifth Avenue.

Según el Departamento de Policía de Miami, los agentes acudieron al lugar tras recibir una alerta del sistema Shot Spotter.

Al llegar, la policía encontró a dos hombres heridos de bala.

Funcionarios de Miami Fire Rescue indicaron que los hombres tienen entre 20 y 30 años y que su estado era de grave a crítico.

Ambos fueron trasladados de urgencia por equipos de Miami Fire Rescue al Ryder Trauma Center del Jackson Memorial Hospital.

Las cámaras de Local 10 News captaron a la policía aparentemente centrando parte de su investigación en un sedán Mercedes-Benz blanco que parecía tener un impacto de bala en el parabrisas.

Los investigadores dijeron que trabajan para determinar las circunstancias que llevaron al tiroteo.

La policía no dijo si busca a algún sospechoso o persona de interés.

The measure is a testament to voters' growing concerns about data centers and allows supporters to go on offense on what has become a top campaign issue. The bill's sponsor, Sen. Jon Husted, a Republican from Ohio, is in a tough reelection battle and has been labeled in campaign ads as the “face of data centers” by his Democratic challenger, former Sen. Sherrod Brown.

The bill is a modest one. It requires utility regulators to consider adopting a federal standard that charges large power customers a rate that covers the cost of the system upgrades needed to serve them. Democrats say it amounts to a suggestion and that more is needed. Republicans say the bill sends a message to regulators to act.

“You all know this is the only game in town,” Husted told reporters in advocating for his bill. “This bill passing is the only way to get a chance to prove to the American people before the midterm elections whose side you're on.”

Senate Democrats say the bill isn't tough enough

The measure passed the House by a vote of 417-3. It will need support from at least seven Democratic senators to proceed to a final vote, but it's unclear how many will do so given the criticism from within their ranks that it doesn't go far enough and knowing that passage could give Husted's reelection prospects a lift.

“The bill is a fraud, plain and simple,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said.

Democrats have offered competing proposals. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M. sponsored legislation that would direct the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to issue rules for large electricity customers that requires them to pay for necessary grid upgrades.

“They want it optional, which means zero. We want it mandatory,” Schumer said.

Republicans are looking to position Democrats as obstructionists who are blocking progress on key voter concerns. Husted's bill is one example. Another would be the bill from Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., that would bar members of Congress from purchasing individual stocks. The issue is a popular one with candidates running for office this election cycle, but also includes voter identification requirements that Democrats have called a poison pill.

Thune has teed up both bills for a procedural vote that will require 60 votes to advance.

“Both pieces of legislation strike at the very heart of issues that the American people care deeply about, passionately about, and we'll see if the Democrats are willing to take yes for an answer," Thune said.

Data centers have become a top campaign issue

The House and Senate are both expected to be out of session for all of October. The House left in mid-September, canceling nearly two weeks of votes as Republicans were anxious to get on the campaign trail in a bid to keep their majority in the next Congress.

President Donald Trump has embraced the building of more data centers, but there is growing wariness from voters. About 6 in 10 Americans support limiting the number of new data centers that can be built, including most Democrats and Republicans.

And a majority of Americans are “extremely” or “very” concerned about the impact of data centers on electricity prices or the water supply in the communities where they are built.

In Ohio, a data center hot spot with closely contested races for governor and U.S. Senate, the National Republican Senatorial Committee warned in a recent memo that Husted is vulnerable to losing his seat because of the centers. Husted helped promote Ohio as a destination for data centers while serving as lieutenant governor.

The Ohio race is seen as vital to determining control of the Senate, helping explain why the data center bill has generated so much scrutiny and is so hotly contested despite the overwhelming vote it received in the House.

Brown tiene previsto comparecer a las 8:45 a.m. ante la jueza de circuito de Miami-Dade Marisa Tinkler Mendez, en el edificio de justicia Richard E. Gerstein.

Según su abogado, Mark Eiglarsh, la Fiscalía ofreció el acuerdo después de más de diez meses y medio de litigio.

“Le hicieron una oferta que no podía rechazar”, dijo Eiglarsh en un comunicado enviado a Local 10 News.

Los detalles específicos del acuerdo no se conocieron de inmediato.

Actualmente, Brown enfrenta un cargo que conlleva una posible pena de 30 años de prisión, con un mínimo obligatorio de 20 años, según su abogado.

El caso se remonta a un incidente ocurrido en mayo de 2025 durante un evento de boxeo en el vecindario de La Pequeña Haití, en Miami.

Brown está acusado de quitarle un arma a un empleado del evento y disparar dos veces contra un hombre, Zul-Qarnain Kwame Nantambu, con quien se había enfrentado a golpes. Según los reportes, una bala le rozó el cuello.

Agentes de la policía de Miami esposaron a Brown y se lo llevaron del lugar tras el incidente, pero no fue acusado sino hasta meses después.

Después del tiroteo, Brown publicó en redes sociales que el hombre intentaba robarle sus joyas y hacerle daño.

La Fiscalía Estatal de Miami-Dade finalmente acusó a Brown de intento de homicidio en segundo grado con arma de fuego.

Eiglarsh ha argumentado anteriormente que se le imputó un cargo desproporcionado y que Brown tenía argumentos sólidos de defensa propia.

“Es evidente que acusarlo de intento de homicidio en segundo grado es excesivo”, dijo Eiglarsh en noviembre de 2025. “Hasta el juez dijo que, en el peor de los casos, estamos hablando de asalto agravado. Además, tenemos argumentos sólidos de defensa propia”.

Brown se declaró no culpable después de ser extraditado a Estados Unidos desde el Medio Oriente.

En ese momento, su equipo legal rechazó la idea de que Brown hubiera huido a Dubái.

“No huyó a Dubái, tiene negocios en marcha en Dubái”, dijo su abogado durante una audiencia de fianza anterior.

A principios de este mes, el abogado de Nantambu dijo a los periodistas que su cliente ya no quería “participar” en el proceso contra Brown.

Según Eiglarsh, Brown decidió ahora que resolver el caso es lo mejor para él y su familia.

“Antonio está listo para dejar esto atrás, seguir enfocado en sus hijos, reconstruir sus oportunidades profesionales y seguir adelante con su vida”, dijo Eiglarsh. “Ha luchado este caso por más de diez meses y medio. Ahora tiene la oportunidad de lograr algo que se ha vuelto cada vez más importante para él y su familia: cerrar este capítulo”.

Según la universidad, $2,000 millones de la donación de Griffin se destinarán a poner en marcha Carnegie Mellon University Miami, un nuevo campus que ocupará más de 35 acres en Wynwood.

Está previsto que la construcción comience en 2027 y que los primeros estudiantes se inscriban en 2028, siempre que se obtengan las aprobaciones regulatorias correspondientes.

Griffin le compró el terreno a Moishe Mana por $1,100 millones.

Mana describe la venta como un relevo que mantiene la misma misión, y asegura que se trata de la mayor operación de consolidación de terrenos en la historia de Florida.

Una vez terminado, el campus de Miami tendrá capacidad para más de 3,500 estudiantes de licenciatura, maestría y doctorado, cerca de 300 profesores y más de 600 empleados, según CMU.

Los $1,000 millones restantes de la donación irán al campus de Carnegie Mellon en Pittsburgh. La mitad se destinará de forma flexible a las principales prioridades de la universidad, mientras que $500 millones se invertirán en su Escuela de Ciencias de la Computación, que pasará a llamarse Kenneth C. Griffin School of Computer Science.

De acuerdo con CMU, el aporte de $3,000 millones es la mayor donación hecha por una sola persona en la historia de la educación superior, y también la mayor que Griffin ha hecho en su vida.

Un nuevo campus en Wynwood

CMU explicó que su campus de Miami tendrá un diseño distinto al de una universidad tradicional: la enseñanza y la investigación se organizarán en torno a grandes desafíos sociales y no por carreras académicas.

Al abrir, la universidad planea enfocarse en áreas como la salud humana y los descubrimientos biológicos, la seguridad nacional y las capacidades estratégicas, la energía y la resiliencia climática, y la manufactura avanzada y la transformación industrial.

Según la universidad, equipos interdisciplinarios de estudiantes, investigadores, líderes de la industria y socios del gobierno trabajarán juntos en esos desafíos. Las humanidades, las artes y el diseño también formarán parte del enfoque del campus.

CMU aseguró que la sede de Miami será un campus universitario completo, con la enseñanza y la investigación en el centro de su misión, y no una simple extensión de programas o proyectos de su campus de Pittsburgh.

Los planes para el campus de Wynwood incluyen espacios para laboratorios de investigación de la industria y estudios de creación de empresas, donde estudiantes, profesores, empresas y socios comunitarios puedan trabajar lado a lado.

“Estamos profundamente agradecidos con Ken Griffin por su extraordinaria visión, su colaboración y su confianza en lo que Carnegie Mellon puede lograr”, dijo el presidente de CMU, Farnam Jahanian.

Jahanian señaló que los cambios tecnológicos, incluidos los avances en inteligencia artificial, obligan a las universidades a replantear cómo se forma a los estudiantes, cómo se hace investigación y cómo se construyen alianzas.

“Juntos tenemos la oportunidad de llevar más allá las cualidades que siempre han distinguido a Carnegie Mellon, como nuestra agilidad, creatividad, cultura interdisciplinaria y enfoque incansable en el impacto, para construir un nuevo modelo de educación superior a la altura de la urgencia de este momento”, dijo Jahanian.

Griffin: el campus de Miami es una “oportunidad generacional”

Griffin afirmó que traer Carnegie Mellon a Miami pondrá a la ciudad “en el centro del avance humanístico y científico” y ampliará el alcance internacional de la universidad.

“CMU Miami representa una oportunidad generacional para construir un nuevo centro de investigación y vida intelectual, que atraerá a estudiantes, académicos e investigadores excepcionales de todo el mundo y estará entre las instituciones académicas más importantes del planeta”, dijo Griffin.

Añadió que el campus también ayudará a formar talento y generar conocimiento capaz de dar vida a nuevas empresas, aportar a la economía y la comunidad de Miami e impulsar la prosperidad del país.

Griffin también se unirá a la Junta de Síndicos de Carnegie Mellon.

Jahanian dijo que la universidad tiene la intención de trabajar de la mano con la comunidad de Miami a medida que avance el proyecto.

“Toda gran historia de Carnegie Mellon comienza con una alianza”, dijo Jahanian. “Nuestra relación con Pittsburgh ha definido a CMU por más de un siglo, y creemos que los vínculos que construyamos en Miami enriquecerán a ambas ciudades. Queremos escuchar, aprender y trabajar junto a nuestros vecinos para crear nuevas oportunidades de colaboración, innovación y prosperidad compartida”.

The investment would mark the second time this week that the Republican president has sought to highlight the promise of foreign investment made possible by his administration's trade policy in states where Republican Senate candidates are in tight election campaigns. He made a similar announcement on Monday in the Oval Office for a massive steel plant in Iowa.

The Alaska investment comes from pledges made as part of a 2025 trade deal with South Korea, which included promises of $350 billion in U.S. investments in exchange for lower U.S. tariffs on South Korean cars, auto parts and other products.

The announcement, first reported by Bloomberg, was confirmed by the White House on Wednesday.

Sullivan, who has been a persistent advocate for the Alaska natural gas project and has encouraged South Korean investment, is a two-term senator facing a competitive challenge from Democrat Mary Peltola, a former congresswoman.

The project consists of an 807-mile (1,300-kilometer) natural gas pipeline connecting Alaska's North Slope to a liquefied natural gas export terminal in southern Alaska and eventually will reduce energy costs for the state's residents by providing a reliable and secure supply, the White House said.

Democrats are targeting Alaska and Iowa

Trump on Monday announced plans for a $15 billion steel plant to be built in Iowa by a Minnesota company owned by an Indian industrial conglomerate.

In Iowa, Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson is in a close U.S. Senate contest with Democratic state Rep. Josh Turek for the seat being vacated by retiring two-term Republican Joni Ernst. Hinson spoke in the Oval Office during the announcement.

Alaska and Iowa, where Trump won comfortably each time he has run for president, are among the states where Democrats are targeting Republican-held Senate seats in the 2026 midterm elections, less than five weeks away.

Democrats need to gain a net of four seats in the 100-member Senate to overtake Republicans in the majority.

Voters are worried about fuel costs

Trump's announcements come as voters express concern about near-record fuel prices related to the unresolved war with Iran and as majority Republicans in Congress are facing voters dissatisfied with Trump's handling of the economy.

In a late-July poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, only about one-third of Americans approved of Trump’s handling of the economy, and about 7 in 10 described the economy as poor.

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Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.

Salah Sarsour was detained in Milwaukee in March by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. A federal judge ordered Sarsour’s release in June, saying he raised a “substantial” claim that the Trump administration was targeting him for speaking out against Israel and advocating for Palestinian rights.

Sarsour called the ruling “deeply disappointing,” but said he intends to appeal.

“I will continue fighting to defend the right to free speech and to stay in the country I have called home for more than three decades,” Sarsour said in a statement.

Government attorneys say Sarsour’s decades-old convictions in Israel make him a threat to national security and accuse him of lying on his green card application. Judge Jayme Salinardi, with the Chicago Immigration Court, found him removable on foreign-policy grounds but tossed out the government's claim that Sarsour lied to immigration authorities.

Sarsour says he fears for his life if he is deported to the West Bank

Sarsour, who was born in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, was imprisoned in Israel in 1988 after confessing to throwing a Molotov cocktail and stones at Israeli military personnel. In 1995, he was convicted of attempting to possess weapons. Sarsour denies committing those crimes. His attorneys say he was tortured and coerced into confessing in both instances.

Sarsour, the president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, does not have a criminal record in the U.S., where he has lived since 1993. His attorneys say the U.S. government has known about Sarsour’s convictions in Israel since he arrived.

Deportation to the West Bank “means the end of my life,” Sarsour told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

One of his attorneys, Patrick Taurel, told the AP that Sarsour’s earlier treatment by Israeli authorities is “probably a good indicator of what awaits him” if he is deported.

At a status hearing Wednesday, Taurel pressed the judge to specify that Sarsour can only be deported to Israel or the Palestinian territories. Jordan, a country to which Sarsour has no connection, is listed as a possible destination on the order of removal.

Sarsour was instructed by immigration officers to list Jordan as his home country on an immigration form because his preferred entry — “Palestine” — is not a fully independent, unified state. But he “has no right to reside in Jordan,” Taurel said.

Salinardi declined, calling it an issue to be addressed on appeal.

Attorney says Sarsour will fight deportation

Taurel said Wednesday that Sarsour is being unfairly targeted.

“If Salah can be deported for his speech in support of Palestinian rights, anyone can face the same fate,” he said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a memo in June 2025 invoking a rarely used immigration provision saying Sarsour could be deported on the same grounds as Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi, both advocates for Palestinian rights whom the Trump administration has tried to expel, according to court documents.

Before the judge’s ruling, Taurel said Sarsour would need to demonstrate on appeal that he could be tortured again if he were deported.

“It’s a very high bar, although I think we can meet it in this case, given what Salah has already experienced, and given the government of Israel’s treatment" of others like him, Taurel said.

A notice of appeal is due within 30 days. Salinardi did not schedule a new hearing and announced he is retiring and that Judge Craig Defoe will oversee the case going forward.

Sarsour says he was tortured and coerced into confessions

Jawad Boulos, who represented Sarsour when he was convicted in Israel, testified in August that Sarsour was coerced into confessing and that he wasn’t convicted of any charge tying him to a terrorist organization. He said Sarsour was tortured by Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency.

The Department of Homeland Security challenged Boulos about the torture allegations, questioning how he could know it was true.

Sarsour’s current defense team has asked why U.S. authorities waited until this year to detain him. Taurel said the government has known about Sarsour’s imprisonment in Israel for decades and that he has not concealed that from immigration authorities.

Experts on forced confessions and the treatment of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons also testified in Sarsour’s defense. Israeli military courts have faced repeated scrutiny over allegations of limited due process and the high conviction rate of Palestinians. Israel rejects the claims.

In June, U.S. District Judge James Patrick Hanlon ordered Sarsour released from ICE custody saying he could have a case arguing the U.S. government detained him in retaliation for protected speech. Further, Hanlon said, government attorneys had not explained why Sarsour was suddenly considered a threat after decades as a lawful permanent resident.

The Trump administration has appealed Hanlon’s ruling.

Sarsour, who has Type 2 diabetes, lost more than 30 pounds (14 kilograms) while detained by ICE, and his blood sugar levels were checked only once a month, putting him at risk of organ failure or death, his attorneys said.

An investigation by KFF Health News and The Associated Press found that hundreds of detainees in at least 33 states have filed federal lawsuits with similar allegations of medical neglect.

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Mayes-Osterman is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Now he’s one of several candidates locked in a tougher race than originally envisioned as Republican-run states heeded Trump’s call to begin an unusual round of redistricting to help retain control of the U.S. House.

Republicans hoped to pick up as many as nine seats between Texas and Florida. However, even though the districts were redrawn to make them easier to win, the party remains weighed down by dissatisfaction with Trump, the economy, the war with Iran and the president’s deportation agenda.

The political landscape remains competitive enough that Vice President JD Vance is traveling to Texas on Wednesday, where he’ll appear with Flores, and then visit Florida on Thursday.

House Democrats’ national campaign chair, Rep. Suzan DelBene, recently circulated through Florida districts that Republicans were hoping to claim for themselves.

“Republicans arrogantly thought they were going to redistrict seats to pick up more,” DelBene said in an interview during her trip. “Instead, what they have is people across the state souring on the Republican agenda.”

Mike Marinella, House Republicans’ campaign spokesman, said the party can still capitalize this year “with a more favorable map, historic fundraising and spending advantages, stronger candidates and a common-sense agenda.”

House seats are up for grabs in Texas

Republicans won 25 of Texas’ 38 seats in the U.S. House as Trump returned to power two years ago. Partially using that election as a baseline, the redrawn map was intended to help Republicans win up to 30 seats.

Key to this plan was the Rio Grande Valley, a heavily Latino region on the southern tip of Texas, which had shifted toward Trump.

Texas’ 34th Congressional District, where Flores is running, includes some of the valley, and it opted for Trump by 10 points over Democrat Kamala Harris. But Flores said he expected his race to be close, which he credits to his opponent’s five terms in office.

Flores received Trump’s endorsement, still pinned to his X account, and spoke at his unusual midterm convention in Dallas. But he also removed from his website a promise to “SUPPORT PRESIDENT TRUMP’S AGENDA” as he looked toward general election voters and widening his base of support.

“If I tell them the red meat issues or I tell them, you know, oh, Republican, Democrat, or anything like that, you lose them,” he told The Associated Press. “I just sell them myself, sell them what I stand for.”

Republicans in Washington acknowledge that inflation, Trump’s tariffs and the war in Iran have made their path harder. Latino voters’ discontent with Trump’s immigration agenda further scrambles their efforts.

Republicans are also facing the potential loss of an incumbent who represents a redrawn district. Rep. Monica De La Cruz, who is running for a third term, faces a strong challenge from musician Bobby Pulido. A Latin Grammy winner whose top song on Spotify has 619 million streams, Pulido doesn’t face the usual first-time candidates’ challenge of establishing name ID.

“I want a picture!” Eloise Ibarra, 42, exclaimed as Pulido walked through the crowd at a high school football game. Ibarra later said she’d “probably” vote for Pulido after sitting out the last presidential race.

“I don’t really like his policies,” she said about Trump. “It’s very expensive, I go to the grocery store and buy $50 worth of stuff and it’s like five items.”

Democrats argue that Republicans miscalculated this year.

“I think Republicans counted on Hispanics, and they counted on rural Texas, to deliver votes for them, and these are the two places that are hurting the most,” said Terri Burke of the Texas Democratic Party. Speaking of redistricting, she said, “this is really no longer such a slam dunk for the Republicans anywhere.”

Democrats see opportunity in Florida

Republicans already had 20 out of 28 seats in Florida, and they wanted to boost that to 24 with their new congressional map. But much like in Texas, their plan was based on 2024 results, when voters, including many Latinos, were dissatisfied with Democratic President Joe Biden on the economy and immigration.

Republicans targeted Rep. Kathy Castor in metro Tampa and Rep. Darren Soto in the Orlando area, while putting south Florida Reps. Jared Moskowitz and Debbie Wasserman Schultz into the same district.

Moskowitz shifted to a nearby Republican-leaning district, and Wasserman Schultz ran for another term in a separate, heavily Democratic district. Castor and Soto face longer odds in their redrawn districts, though DelBene believes they have a shot in the current environment.

The new map didn’t stop Pia Dandiya, an Ivy League-educated school principal whose parents immigrated from India, from mounting her first House campaign for Congress.

She’s running in Florida’s 22nd Congressional District, where Trump won by double digits in 2024 and where Republicans had hoped to pit Moskowitz against Wasserman Schultz.

But Dandiya notes that Biden outpaced Trump in the same collection of precincts in 2020, and she calls herself “a happy road warrior” as she travels 150-plus miles between campaign stops.

“The way this district has been drawn just shows yet again that we are living in a world where elected officials are choosing voters instead of voters choosing elected officials, and it should never be that way,” she said. DelBene and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee tapped her as one of their “Red to Blue” priority candidates.

Dandiya said voters’ current circumstances matter more than how they voted two years ago.

“Cost of living is not an issue that is exclusively impacting Democrats. It is an issue that is ubiquitous,” she said, adding that she hears the same concerns even in her district’s more conservative communities.

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Barrow reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Atlanta.

While he was in charge from 2016-26, Guardiola's expensively assembled team won six Premier Leagues, the 2023 Champions League and three FA Cups among other trophies.

In his first public comment since an independent panel published its bombshell report on Tuesday, Guardiola wrote on social media Wednesday that he backs the club.

“I want every single Man City fan to know I am here; more than ever. I am, always have been, always will, be behind my club, my owner, my chairman, Ferran, the players, staff, Enzo and you, our unique supporters. Let me be clear: we will get through this together,” Guardiola wrote on X. “I love you all.”

The post was accompanied by pictures of him in a Man City shirt celebrating with club chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, lifting the Champions League trophy, applauding the fans and celebrating the Premier League title in 2023.

City’s alleged financial wrongdoing — made possible in part through what the league said were “sham” commercial deals — was worth more than 900 million pounds ($1.19 billion).

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See AP’s full soccer coverage here

More than 1.7 million people in South Florida, including 500,000 children and seniors, don’t know where their next meal will come from.

Cameron Gwynn spoke with Local 10 News as he shopped for groceries at the food pantry at the Feeding South Florida Pembroke Park warehouse.

“The prices are just creeping up so high that it feels like it’s almost impossible to catch up,” he said. “So having this safety net is really important.”

Feeding South Florida CEO Paco Velez addressed the rising cost of food and its impact on the community.

“One of the biggest challenges really across the entire country is the cost of diesel,” he said. “And the cost of diesel impacts everything that we do in this country.”

Velez gave a whole presentation Tuesday about how fuel costs impact every step of food supply, from farmers planting seeds to processing and distribution.

“We’re also seeing SNAP benefits from not only the feds, but from the state, where some of those are going to start dropping because the amount of SNAP benefits going to our seniors is lower,” he said.

Velez says one factor that drove about 158,000 South Floridians to turn to Feeding South Florida for the first time was the loss of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians.

Without TPS, they can’t legally work, and without a job, they don’t qualify for some food assistance programs, leaving them without an income and with no food on the table.

“The families who are coming to our pantry and going to the pantries for 300 different organizations, they’re all desperate,” said Velez.

Paul Rolli says his background in finance makes him a perfect person for the job.

He’s currently a city commissioner in his second term.

Possible property tax cuts on the horizon are on everyone’s mind, and if the referendum gets the green light, Rolli says it will mean some hard decisions on dollars.

“Before we cut anything, we’d look at the efficiency of each operation because some would be more efficient,” he said.

Rolli added that bringing in new development is key for the city, but in the same breath he said it must be the right kind to protect the character of the city.

“I think we need more development but we need responsible development,” he said, adding that he means not big building development.

Rolli is facing Julie Carson and Jerry Fisichelli in the election.

Fisichelli declined to be interviewed for this story.

Carson has served as city commissioner and says she has deep roots in Wilton Manors.

“Leadership without any sense of hostility, and I think that is really important in a mayor,” she said.

If the city loses much needed revenue with property taxes being slashed, Carson said there are tough choices to make, and some possible unpopular moves.

“Increasing parking meter fees in the city, or having limited hours for certain parks, or having service fees for certain parks,” she said.

Rolli said with people working more from home, new vibrant areas for people to meet makes sense in Wilton Manors.

“Areas for socialization that are outside bars and restaurants and that kind of thing, where it’s out in the open, like plazas, covered plazas because of the heat,” he said.

Carson said she would like to improve how code enforcement gets handled.

“I think residents need a little ushering throughout the system so they can reach compliance, which is always the goal,” she said.

Glazer read a North Miami Beach police officer’s report on the arrest of Nathalie Belizaire, a mother of four, and said, “You cannot make this up!”

While Belizaire was on the Carnival Conquest, a cruise ship voyage from Miami to the Bahamas, her 2-month-old daughter was home with her three minor siblings, according to police.

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

Belizaire left on Friday and returned on Monday, according to police. The children’s father called 911 on Saturday, according to the arrest report.

North Miami Beach police officers reported forcing their way into their apartment in the area of Northeast 15th Avenue and 170th Street and finding the four kids, including a two-year-old child, “hiding” in the bathroom.

“We are just grateful nothing worse happened to those kids,” Glazer said.

On Monday, Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputies waited for Belizaire to return to PortMiami, according to the arrest report. Belizaire’s public defender told Glazer she denied the allegation.

“They arrested her disembarking from the cruise ship,” Glazer said.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection held Belizaire until NMBPD officers detained her. Police officers questioned her and arrested her, according to the arrest report.

Glazer asked, “Who leaves the kids, four little kids, alone to go on a cruise?”

Miami-Dade corrections booked Belizaire at 1:25 p.m. on Monday at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, according to inmate records.

On Tuesday, prosecutors filed a felony case against Belizaire, according to court records. She faced four counts of child neglect without great bodily harm. Glazer issued four stay-away orders and set her bond at $10,000.

Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez was set to preside over the case.

Related story: Mother accused of leaving 4 young children, including infant, home alone to go on Carnival cruise

Consumer prices rose 3.4% in August compared with a year earlier, the Commerce Department said Wednesday, below the 3.7% economist expectations. On a monthly basis, prices climbed 0.3%, up from 0.1% in July, a sign prices that are still running hot.

Excluding the volatile energy and food categories, inflation also came in lower than expected, rising 3% in August from a year ago. And from July to August, core prices rose just 0.2%, up from 0.1% the previous month. Many economists feared core prices would rise more quickly month-to-month.

U.S. markets bounced higher immediately on the new inflation reading, with investors betting that an expected interest-rate hike from the U.S. Federal Reserve might be delayed.

Even so, inflation remains above the Federal Reserve's 2% target and the monthly increase in August suggests it isn't moving back toward the target anytime soon. The Fed lifted its key short-term interest rate two weeks ago for the first time in three years to combat inflation and most economists expect it will do so at least once more this year, possibly as soon as late next month.

“Inflation’s trend is lower but still not close to their target and not improving, either,” Bill Adams, chief U.S. economist at Fifth Third Commercial Bank, said in an email.

Wednesday's report covered a key inflation gauge closely watched by the Fed, known as the personal consumption expenditures price index. It is similar to the higher-profile consumer price index, which was released earlier this month.

High prices have cast a pall on the U.S. economy, even as growth is mostly solid and the unemployment rate is low. On Tuesday, the Conference Board's consumer confidence survey fell to its lowest level since 2014, a period that includes both the Great Recession and a global pandemic.

Americans' paychecks are growing but not as quickly as prices.

Inflation for July was previously reported at 3.7% but was revised lower to 3.4% by the government as part of an update in how it measures price changes in several categories, including investment management, computer software and accessories, and legal services.

For example, the government previously put a heavy weight on some computer accessories that have jumped in price because of outsized demand from the AI buildout. The revisions lowered that weight and as a result, the higher prices for some computer equipment are not driving up this measure of inflation as much.

Spending picks up

Despite elevated prices, Americans accelerated their spending last month, the government said, with spending jumping 0.9% from July to August, up from just 0.1% the previous month.

Some of that increase was likely fueled by wealthier Americans cashing in their gains from higher stock prices, a recent report from JPMorgan suggests. Other consumers may be taking on more debt to support their spending.

After-tax incomes, adjusted for inflation, were unchanged on a monthly basis in August, after rising 0.3% in July, the report said.

Healthy consumer spending could fuel a pickup in growth. In a separate report Wednesday, the government said the economy expanded at a 2.2% annual pace in the July-September quarter. Analysts expect that to pick up to a 3% rate in the current quarter.

Growth in gross domestic product — the nation’s output of a goods and services — decelerated from a 2.5% pace from January through March, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. The second-quarter growth was an improvement on the department’s previous estimate of 1.5% — a surprise to economists who had expected little or no change in the GDP number.

Consumer spending — which accounts for about 70% of U.S. economic activity — increased at a healthy 3.8% annual pace, up from 0.7% in the January-March period. Spending has been helped by a strong stock market, which reflects enthusiasm over the prospects for artificial intelligence and which enriches wealthy investors and gives them more money to buy things with.

The overall growth number was dragged down by imports. They are subtracted from growth because GDP is only supposed to count domestic production. Imports rose at a 12.6% annual pace from April through June, partly due to a surge in shipments of computer chips and other products that support artificial intelligence investment, and slashed nearly 1.7 percentage points off second-quarter growth.

The U.S. economy has proven surprisingly resilient in the face of fighting with Iran and the energy price spike it caused.

Business investment, excluding housing, rose at a 9% clip in the second quarter, reflecting the AI investment boom. And a measure of the economy’s underlying strength — which strips out volatile government spending and trade numbers — grew at a strong 4.6% rate, up from 1.8% in the first quarter.

“The economy is increasingly reliant on AI gains and the corresponding wealth effects boosting higher-income households’ spending power to fuel recent growth,” said Michael Pearce, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics. "The economy remains sensitive to a sudden reversal of optimism on AI.''

Investment in housing rose 2.8% ticking up for the first time since the end of 2024. The housing market has been depressed by high mortgage rates.

Wednesday’s report was the last of three Commerce Department estimates of second-quarter GDP growth. The first look at third-quarter growth is due Oct. 29.

The new sanctions announced Tuesday directly have an impact on the small and mid-size private enterprises that are allowed by the Cuban government new economic reforms introduced a few months ago. Under the new sanctions, these businesses will not be allowed to have bank accounts in the U.S.

In addition, the new sanctions will prohibit educational exchanges and “people to people” contact that have been used for tourism purposes.

The Cuban government was quick to react by saying that these new U.S. sanctions further hurt the Cuban people. Cuba continues to deny that their own system is mostly responsible for the current poor socio-economic conditions on the island nation.

Sept. 29: Secretary Rubio sends a clear message to Cuba

On Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent a stern and clear message to the Cuban government. “Do not think that you can wait out the end of this administration. Change your government or you will face the consequences.”

I do not believe, given the problems in the Middle East, that the U.S. will open another military front. Although even if they do, it will not take long for the U.S. to take out Cuba’s military.

The problem is what do we do after with the island? I do not believe Cuba is ready for a democratic government.

Sept. 25: Cuba denies negotiations with U.S.

President Trump announced two days ago that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has started negotiations once again with members of the Cuban government.

Cuba’s Vice Minister Fernández de Cosio was quickly to react and make it clear that such negotiations are not true.

In the meantime the support amongst the Cuban-American and Venezuelan community for Trump is eroding fast ahead of the midterm elections.

Sept. 24: The Trump administration needs a lesson in simple mathematics

At a press conference Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in reference to Cuba that we cannot expect to change a country that has been under a totalitarian regime for 60 years in six months. First, Mr. Secretary, this coming Jan. 1 will mark 68 (2027-1959= 68) years since the Castro’s took over power.

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Trump, Rubio and the Cuban American members of Congress from South Florida have said multiple times that by the end of 2026 the Cuban government would fall. Now they say by the end of 2029. Maybe the 6 was reversed from the beginning.

Secondly, we captured Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela this past January. The following week, President Trump said that in two weeks (a week has 7 days. 7x2=14), Cuba would be next. Let’s check the math, Mr. President. It’s been eight months since the capture of Maduro. That’s about 240 days.

The foreign policy of this administration continues to be a disaster. We have 101 ambassadorial appointments open around the world out of 196. 40 appointees are waiting Senate hearing and confirmation. But their qualifications are so bad they probably will not be confirm. 95% of President Trump’s ambassadorial appointments are political with limited international relations and diplomatic knowledge.

Furthermore, 42 times the Trump administration has announced a cease fire with Iran because both nations were close to a deal. So far the war goes on with no clear exit strategy.

In the meantime, Cuban Americans and Venezuelans in South Florida have realized that the Trump administration strategies are just a game with empty promises.

There is still time to correct your calculations but you are running out of time, mid-term elections are around the corner. Do the math.

Sept. 22: Trump calls Cuba ‘failed state that will fall’

This morning, President Donald Trump addressed the annual United Nations General Assembly meeting.

In his speech, he called Cuba a “failed state that will fall.” He further stated that “communism will never come to the U.S. but liberty will soon come to Cuba.” Trump further stated that Cuba represents a threat to U.S. national security -- all these accusations without giving any specific details.

Sept. 22: Wealthy, influential Cuban-Americans with ties to Trump planning for ‘post-communist’ Cuba if regimes falls

According to an article by the Wall Street Journal, wealthy and influential Cuban-Americans with ties to President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have been meeting in lawyer offices and hotel conference rooms to plan for a “post-communist” Cuba if the regime were to fall soon.

The “change” model seems to first attempt to stabilize Cuba by restructuring the economy that could possibly lead to a new form of government.

Many of these individuals are planning to personally play a role in rebuilding Cuba. These individuals run wealthy businesses. However, for the most part, the opposition groups in South Florida have been left out of these conversations or any role they might play in the future of Cuba.

Sept. 21: Cuba’s leadership continue to blame their problems on everybody else except themselves

Cuban Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Carlos Fernandez de Cossio made a surreal statement yesterday, claiming that everyone at the top of the Cuban government leadership get, on average, two hours of electricity per day.

We know that most of Cuba’s inner circle of power have generators or solar panels that provide them electricity around the clock each day.

What Fernandez de Cossio does not admit is that the electrical problem has been caused by the Cuban government not being able to fix the outdated electrical plans that are the cause of the problem.

Sept. 18: Republican Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar breaks with Trump over immigration policy

After supporting President Donald Trump’s policy on immigration, Republican Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar issued a video yesterday criticizing Trump.

The Department of Homeland Security was quickly to react and say that the Trump administration will continue enforcing the policy.

We need to ask ourselves whether Salazar’s change of heart has to do more with political survival since she faces a tough race in the midterm elections this coming November from well known South Floridian Eliott Rodriguez (D).

Sept. 17: Cuba is not Venezuela

A new poll recently done by FIU, inside Venezuela and Cuba, show how different the situations are for U.S. foreign policy.

The poll shows that 90% of Venezuelans want free and democratic elections this year, which I do not believe the current Interim President Delcy Rodriguez will agree to. I’m also sure that she will use Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s plan of “stabilization, recovery, and transition phase” to say that the first stage has not been fully accomplished. There was no timetable put on the plan.

The case of Cuba is very different. The population wants their economic and social needs met before political reforms, which goes to my argument that Cuba has a very short history of democratic governments.

So to remind our local members of Congress. To say that “we must return Cuba to democracy” will not happen anytime soon.

Sept. 16: Rubio’s latest actions on Cuba

Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently sent more humanitarian aid to Cuba, and it is being distributed by the non-governmental organization (NGO) associated with the Catholic Church, Caritas of Cuba.

At the same time, Rubio warned international banks and businesses not to collaborate with any Cuban business entities that have been sanctioned by the U.S.

Secretary Rubio also called for the Cuban government to change and become a democracy.

By now, we should understand that changing governments like Cuba, which have been under totalitarian control, is not easy and will take time. Especially countries like Cuba that, in their political history, have had unsustainable democratic governments.

Sept. 15: Cuba becomes a betting market for U.S. prediction markets

Cuba has become a betting market in the USA.

The betting site Polymarket shows how people in the U.S. are betting on everything from the removal of Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel from power to when and if the U.S. will invade Cuba or make an economic agreement with Cuba.

The last prediction is whether the U.S. will go and get indicted Cuban leader Raúl Castro.

Sept. 10: Russia denies Cuba full membership in BRICS

BRICS is an organization of 11 emerging economies around the world. The organization works to influence their global importance and reshape economic governance.

The membership includes Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.

Partner nations include Belarus, Cuba, Nigeria and Thailand.

The Russians turned down Cuba for full membership into the organization because of Cuba’s poor economic conditions and poor predictions by economists moving forward.

Sept. 9: Cuba and the U.S. stuck in diplomatic rhetoric

Cuba’s Brigadier General Emir Mesa Corona, who is in charge of personal security at the Ministry of Interior, sent a strong message to the U.S. not to even think of trying to kidnap Raul Castro or anyone in Cuba’s government or they will face serious consequences.

At the same time, Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parilla admitted that backroom negotiations with the U.S. continue but the U.S. will not soften their positions. Cuba wants the economic embargo lifted while the U.S. wants regime change.

Sept. 8: Blind passion for Cuban politics leads to a political circus between Miami, Havana and DC

As a little boy growing up in Miami, I remember when every presidential candidate from both political parties would come to campaign in Miami and promised that if elected, they would work to see a “Free Cuba.” They would end their speeches with “Viva Cuba Libre.” Local politicians representing different municipalities in Miami-Dade would talk about U.S. foreign policy towards Cuba like they controlled it, and yet, they had nothing to do with it within their scope of responsibilities. But it got them the votes they needed to be elected and remain in power, while political leaders in Cuba continued to blame everything wrong on the island on the U.S. economic embargo, or as they call it, “the blockade.”

On Jan. 3, the U.S. military captured Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela with the assistance of their current Interim President Delcy Rodriguez and brought him to the U.S. to face justice. Shortly thereafter, President Donald Trump announced that Cuba would be next.

The Trump administration began to sanction Cuban organizations and individuals of the government in an attempt to squeeze them out of power. So far, they are still in power. The Cuban government began to prepare for a U.S. invasion. To this date, it has not happened and probably never will.

On May 20, the U.S. Justice Department indicted Raul Castro for the downing of the Brothers to the Rescue planes in 1996 in a theater-like political rally at the Freedom Tower in downtown Miami. So far nothing has happened and nothing is going to happen. There is no Delcy Rodriguez in Cuba. A week ago, many media outlets across Miami reported, based on sources from inside the island, that Raul Castro was gravely ill. This past weekend, Raul reappeared surrounded by Cuba’s military elite.

Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the three Cuban-American members of Congress from South Florida had announced that by the end of 2026, Cuba would fall. Now it has been pushed back to 2029. Furthermore, Rubio recently said that the problem in dealing with Cuba is the Helms-Burton Law (Senator Jesse Helms and Richard Burton, both Republicans) that was enacted by Congress in 1996, also with the hard work of the late Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart and signed into law by Democratic President Bill Clinton.

The three Cuban-American members of Congress made it clear that the goal was to return Cuba to democracy. What democracy? Cuba did not have a democratic government before Fidel Castro took power. How much do they really know about Cuban history? Or is it just a play on words and empty promises?

So as time passes each day, the Cuban-American community is beginning to ask itself, what is really going on in D.C.?

It would not surprise me that in the near future the Trump organizations would negotiate to buy the empty Melia Hotels in Cuba and put the Trump name on them. After all, we now own a big chunk of Venezuelan oil and there was no regime change as promised.

Will we ever learn? How much longer are we going to be blind by our passion?

Sept 6: Raul Castro makes public appearance

After much speculation about Cuba’s Raul Castro being close to death, the Cuban leader showed up at a military event yesterday accompanied by his grandson, Raulito, and Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel.

Sept 3: Raul Castro stable, according to sources

Sources in Cuba say Raul Castro, 95, is stable despite reports about his declining health. According to sources, retired General Abelardo Colome Ibarra, known as “ El Fury,” is currently in worse condition. Colome Ibarra was head of the Ministry of the Interior and highly respected by the Castro brothers and the Cuban military.

Sept 3: President Trump’s hands are tied with regard to Cuba, Rubio says

After months of saying Cuba would be next, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said today that the president’s hands are tied because of the Helms Burton Law which requires no normalization between the U.S. and Cuba unless there is regime change and a move towards a democratic government.

Even if Raul Castro was to die in the near future, I do not expect regime change.

Only the U.S. can change the Helms-Burton Law and I don’t expect that to happen anytime in the near future or after the mid-term elections.

Sept. 2: Children in Cuba start new school year amid more challenges than any other year before

Children in Cuba started the new school year Tuesday facing a lack of supplies, books, uniforms and teachers, and buildings that are falling apart, along with a lack of food to feed the children.

According to the Cuban minister of education, this will be a very challenging year unlike any others.

Cuban education was once one of the big accomplishments of the revolution. However, it was also used to indoctrinate the students in an ideology that no one on the island nation believes anymore.

Sept. 1: Raul Castro hospitalized, sources say

Reliable sources inside Cuba have informed me this afternoon that Raul Castro has been hospitalized. We need to be careful and not to over speculate what might happen until further notice.

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.

In her opening statement at the murder trial, lawyer Charlotte Draycott, representing the prosecution, alleged that Choi's ex-husband Alex Kwong, his father Kwong Kau and his brother Anthony Kwong killed Choi together in February 2023.

The lawyer said Choi’s parents were well-off, and the family of her partner Chris Tam following her divorce was extremely wealthy. The Kwong family were not wealthy, she said.

“I mentioned the money because it was, as we understand it, the root of what happened,” Draycott said.

Choi was a 28-year-old socialite and mother of four who shared her glamorous life of photo shoots and fashion shows on social media. Days before her death, she posted about attending a Christian Dior show at Paris Fashion Week.

Authorities found parts of her dismembered body at a house in a northern village in Hong Kong, where violent crime is rare.

Her ex-husband and the two other defendants were accused of killing Choi, and they face life imprisonment if convicted of murder. They were also charged with preventing the lawful burial of a body.

A nine-person jury panel will determine whether the defendants are guilty. Judge Brian Keith told them that the trio of defendants pleaded not guilty to the murder charge. Kwong Kau also pleaded not guilty to the other charge, but his sons admitted to it.

Choi and Alex Kwong had two children and remained on good terms after their divorce, Draycott said. Choi bought a luxury apartment for her two older children to live in. She had it registered under Kwong Kau’s name to avoid the higher tax she would have incurred had it been registered under her own name, Draycott said.

Kwong Kau and his wife also moved into the apartment, and received funds from their former daughter-in-law. Anthony Kwong later became a driver hired by Choi, she said.

But she said the relationship between Choi and Kwong Kau deteriorated in 2022 when he allegedly blocked Choi's wish to sell the house and buy a new one.

Kwong Kau allegedly tried to hit Choi in July 2022 when Choi and Tam, her partner, spoke to him.

Kwong Kau eventually agreed to sign a document to let Choi proceed, but the prosecution alleged that he could move back in if Choi died. In plotting to kill Choi, Draycott said, Kwong rented an apartment in a village house, and he made a plan with his two sons.

“We say the three of them decided they would do it together,” she said.

The prosecution is expected to continue its opening statement Friday. The trial is expected to last 40 days.

The girl and the suspect, who police identified as Javan Curry Battle, did not know each other, the report states.

Police said the incident was reported after a Dollar Tree manager reviewed surveillance footage and contacted authorities.

Officers with the Miami Police Department’s Little Havana Problem Solving Team responded to the store, located at 1043 W. Flagler St., and detained Battle, the report states.

According to the report, surveillance video showed Battle walking through an aisle with a shopping cart as the girl entered the same aisle alone.

“The offender turns toward her and closes the distance between them. He (Battle) briefly scans the surrounding area and hesitates before positioning his face near the victim’s buttocks. His upper body then rises (inhaling), after which he turns away from the victim,” the report states.

The report also states that the girl then grabbed a poster and began walking away. Police said Battle again moved closer and leaned his pelvic area toward her but appeared unable to make contact as she quickly walked away.

The girl later told investigators that her mother had brought her to the Dollar Tree to buy materials for a school project. Her mother instructed her to get cardboard from another aisle, according to the report.

The girl told police she saw only one person in the aisle, the report states. As she was leaving, she recalled Battle touching her arm and then “nudging her shoulder area,” police said.

They said she also told investigators that she felt Battle smelling her, describing the sensation as “air on her lower back.” She said she knew he had smelled her and ran to her mother for safety, according to the report.

Police said the girl’s description of Battle matched the man seen in the surveillance video.

Investigators later interviewed Battle after reading him his Miranda rights, according to the report. Battle told police he had taken his bicycle to a repair shop in Hialeah before stopping at the Dollar Tree, the report states.

Battle, who lives in the county’s Gladeview area, said he acknowledged seeing the girl walk toward the aisle where he was shopping and gave investigators a description of her that was consistent with her appearance, according to the report.

Investigators said when Battle was asked about his behavior, he told them he “did not intend to cause any harm.” They said Battle claimed that he placed his face toward the girl’s buttocks because he was under the influence of marijuana and his brain “told him to do it.”

Jail records show Battle is facing one count of lewd and lascivious conduct on a child younger than 16.

Battle appeared in Miami-Dade bond court Tuesday, where Judge Mindy Glazer set his bond at $2,500, ordered him to stay away from the victim and the Dollar Tree, placed him on house arrest, and imposed an 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew.

The tennis gold medalist at the Asian Games gets an automatic berth into the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. A two-for-one deal.

The Philippines' Eala reached the semifinals on Wednesday after defeating Joanna Garland of Taiwan 7-5, 6-0. Eala will next face Wang Xiyu of China on Thursday. The winner advances to Friday’s final.

“The Olympics is a dream for me to be able to compete there, to represent my country," Eala said. "So, yeah, let’s see how it goes.”

She took bronze medals in singles and mixed doubles with Francis Alcantara at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, and is a favorite for gold this time.

In order to compete in the Asian Games, Eala had to withdraw from the China Open in Beijing — a mandatory WTA 1000 event. She could be fined $10,000.

She said she's not aware of any official notice from the WTA.

“I want to say that it’s easy for people to relate to wanting to represent their country and wanting to play these types of Olympic Games,” Eala said. She indicated other players have recognized the conflict and supported her.

One seems to be Zhang Shuai of China, No. 57 on the WTA rankings. Eala is No. 18.

“It is incredible that the two competitions are in the same weeks," Zhang said. “Some of the previous competitions have been like this. Last week, the Billie Jean King Cup was in the same week as the Singapore and Seoul competitions.

“That’s life," Zhang added. "If two things are very important to you, or if they’re both very important tournaments, you can choose one of them."

Eala has made her choice.

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SNTV video journalist Nicky Zhu contributed to this report.

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See full AP coverage of Asian sports here

See AP’s full tennis coverage here

Sotheby’s auction house said Wednesday that works by Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cézanne are expected to smash records for the artists in the Nov. 18 sale in New York. If so, it would be the latest sign that, in uncertain times, ultrawealthy art collectors are seeking security in masterpieces.

The paintings come from a collection amassed by the late Argentine art collector Nelly Arrieta de Blaquier and her sugar magnate husband, Carlos Pedro Blaquier, and are being sold by their children.

They include van Gogh’s landscape “Châtaigniers en fleurs,” (Chestnut Trees in Flower) estimated at $180 million, and Cézanne’s portrait “Arlequin,” which carries an estimate of $120 million. Neither has been seen in public for half a century.

Helena Newman, Sotheby’s head of Impressionist and modern art, said the collection was like a “mini- Musée D'Orsay,” the Paris museum that holds one of the world’s greatest collections of Impressionist and post-Impressionist artworks.

“In my 30-plus years at Sotheby’s, I’ve never had the privilege of handling a collection of quite this content and caliber,” she said.

Newman said van Gogh’s painting of flowering chestnut trees captures the “explosion of energy and vitality” the artist felt after his release from a psychiatric asylum in May 1890. He took his own life two months later.

The Cézanne portrait is one of four paintings of the artist’s son dressed as the Harlequin figure from clowning. The other three are in major museums.

Also in the collection are Parisian cityscapes by Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro, a horse-racing image by Edgar Degas and a boating scene by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, all valued in the tens of millions of dollars.

Art expert Philip Hook, a former Sotheby’s auctioneer, said the collection “really is the stuff of legend,” because the collectors did not loan out the works for exhibitions.

“No one knew really what was in it. So now, for this to be revealed, is tremendously exciting,” Hook said.

“They came out with a collection that, rather cleverly, is focused on getting one representative work by each of the major names (of Impressionist and post-Impressionist art), and that is incredibly difficult to do,” he added. “They succeeded with huge, huge style and success.”

Newman said sale is likely to attract global attention, with potential buyers ranging from American tech billionaires to well-endowed Middle Eastern institutions and rich collectors from North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

“In times where there’s a lot of global macro geopolitical uncertainty, it’s almost like there’s a return to really established, tried and tested” works that are “unquestionably great,” Newman said.

“(This) museum-quality Impressionist collection … is pretty rare.”

Lou Ferrigno, who starred as the Marvel character during its 1977–1982 U.S. television run, met with the American pope and chatted briefly with him at the end of Leo's general audience in St. Peter’s Square.

“I’m here because it’s a lifelong dream for me to meet the pope,” Ferrigno told reporters. Noting that one side of his family hails from the southern Amalfi region, Ferrigno said that he grew up hearing about the pope in a Catholic Italian family and served as an altar boy.

“I’m very, very honored to be here to see Pope Leo, because it’s my whole life, it’s a dream coming true,” he said.

He posed for photographers, mimicking the gesture that made him famous in his onscreen transformation from Bruce Banner into the superhero Hulk — flexing his arm muscles.

Ferrigno, a retired professional bodybuilder, starred as Hulk in the CBS series before going on to other television and film roles. He noted that some had been filmed in Rome, and that he appreciated the pope's message.

“Our world, our country needs someone like him: A great leader about kindness and peace, because there’s so much turmoil happening in this world,” he said.

It's unknown if the former Robert Prevost was a Hulk fan.

By 1977, when the series began, the Chicago-born pope was graduating from Villanova University and entering the Augustinian religious order as a novitiate.

Recently, Leo has acknowledged he and his family were regular watchers of a different television personality: the newly-beatified Archbishop Fulton Sheen, the popular American TV and radio preacher.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Five years later, there is considerably more canvas, and a bigger audience.

Viktor, now 18, has turned the bold colors, expressive faces and an unmistakable style into a form of expression and a path to independence.

Click here to see more of Viktor’s artwork.

“You can see that his art has evolved a lot. You can see him, verbally and socially, he’s evolved a lot,” said Viktor’s brother, Boris Bevanda.

That evolution was on display during a recent art event at Plunge Beach Resort in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, where Viktor’s work hung alongside pieces from other South Florida artists.

When Local 10 first featured Viktor in 2021, his bright oil-pastel drawings had already built him a sizable following.

Today, his reach is measured well into the millions.

But perhaps the bigger change is in Viktor himself.

“It provided him a way to send a message. To like express himself,” said Boris. “Since like, he doesn’t really use words to express himself, he chooses to let his hands do the work for him.”

Click here to view Viktor’s Instagram page.

Click here for Viktor’s Facebook page.

Viktor’s work has been featured in exhibitions and his story earned him Emmy award recognition.

What began almost accidentally — a child drawing during schoolwork— has developed into a measure of independence his family once could only hope for.

All profits from Viktor’s art go towards his education, therapy, and art supplies, as well as donations to charities that support individuals with autism.

There’s more to the story

When Local 10 arrived to catch up with Viktor, he was taking part in an event with Artists with Autism, an organization that creates opportunities for artists on the spectrum to exhibit their work, interact with guests and take part in the business side of selling their art.

Seeing Viktor alongside those artists opened another chapter of the story.

Next week on “What Connects Us,” Local 10 will introduce you to the group, its mission and some of the other artists using creativity to make themselves heard.

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

Iliyan Filipov, 53, president of the Botev Plovdiv soccer club and owner of a major transportation company, was shot dead at around 1 a.m. near his home in Bulgaria's second-largest city.

Police received a call about a person wounded by gunfire, local police chief Vasil Kostadinov said. When officers arrived at the scene, they confirmed his death and launched an investigation.

Pretrial proceedings have been initiated, and police were examining the crime scene. Authorities haven't revealed a possible motive for the killing, or any official information about suspects.

During the 1990s, mafia-style killings of public figures were a common occurrence in Bulgaria, but the latest outburst of violence has shocked the country, amid a heated campaign for a presidential election next month.

The officials did not say what the response contained and whether it was a rejection.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi presented the U.S. response to President Masoud Pezeshkian at a Cabinet meeting, government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani told the state-run IRNA news agency.

“We will make every effort to bring the agreement to fruition and will firmly stand up for the rights of the Iranian people,” Pezeshkian said. “The agreement must now be based on a win-win strategy.”

The Cabinet meeting followed Araghchi's return to Iran after travelling to New York for last week's U.N. General Assembly, where officials held indirect talks with U.S. officials and also met with Qatari and Pakistani mediators on the sidelines of the annual gathering of world leaders.

Araghchi briefed the Cabinet on his trip to New York and the meetings he held there, including Iran’s conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which Mohajerani said had been conveyed through mediators.

Araghchi last week said he floated the proposal to reopen the strait in a week if the U.S. agreed to lift its blockade of Iranian ports, release frozen Iranian assets and waive sanctions on Iranian oil sales, among other conditions.

Trump swiftly rejected the proposal, saying Iran wanted to make a deal because it was “losing so badly” but that its offer "would not be acceptable.” Despite Trump's public rebuffing, mediators continued working with Iran and the U.S. to try to broker a deal to end the fighting and open the strait, according to officials who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury Department unveiled new sanctions on Tuesday targeting people and companies around the globe that it accuses of being financial facilitators or enablers of Iran’s military supply chain.

The latest action is part of the Trump administration’s “Operation Economic Outcast” campaign aimed at severing “critical financial lifelines” for the already heavily sanctioned Iranian government.

Ten people and entities based in Iran, Hong Kong and Pakistan now face sanctions over accusations of procuring weapons and weapon components for Iran’s defense ministry as it fights its now seven-month war against the U.S.

Iran's economy is spiraling further

Iran's economy, under heavy strain before the war started, has been in a freefall since the conflict began in late February.

The country's currency fell to a new record low on Tuesday, with traders in Tehran exchanging more than 2.5 million rials to the U.S. dollar in a stark reflection of how the war in the Middle East has steadily eroded the Iranian economy.

The latest decline came just 27 days after the rial hit its previous record low of 2.2 million to the dollar on Sept. 2. The currency has repeatedly reached new lows since the war began in February.

Trump on Tuesday said that Iran is “failing very badly, very badly” and predicted anew that the war will be “over with very, very soon.”

At the onset of the conflict, he predicted that the war would last just weeks. More recently, Trump said he expects it won't end until after the Nov. 3 midterm elections in the U.S.

Iranians face soaring prices for medicine amid US blockade, sanctions

Medication prices are soaring in Iran and some treatments have become hard to find, leaving patients and their families scrambling as a U.S. blockade and stepped-up sanctions squeeze the country’s pharmaceuticals industry.

Some medicines have more than tripled in price, further straining Iranians’ finances seven months into the country’s war with the United States and Israel. Prices for food and other goods have skyrocketed even as unemployment has risen and the currency, which hit a record low this week, has lost half its value.

The war has become an economic endurance test. Iran has tried to push world energy prices higher with attacks on the region’s oil shipping routes; the United States, in turn, has aimed to wreck Iran’s economy by blockading its ports since June and slapping it with increasingly tough sanctions.

Iran executes 2 men on charges of violence during January protests

Also on Wednesday, two men were executed in Iran over their role in violence during nationwide anti-government protests in January, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.

Citing the country's judiciary, IRNA said the men took part in unrest in the northeastern city of Mashhad that left four members of the security forces dead earlier this year. Their death sentences were upheld by Iran’s Supreme Court before being carried out Wednesday morning.

The unrest began Dec. 28 amid anger over Iran’s collapsing currency and worsening economy and quickly spread across the country, with demonstrators increasingly calling for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic. Iranian authorities responded with a deadly crackdown.

Rights groups say thousands were killed and tens of thousands arrested, while Iranian authorities have reported a substantially lower death toll.

Inda Peñarrieta y Michelle Macías - esposa e hija de Fito- “tendrán que enfrentar a la justicia” en el marco de un proceso judicial pendiente desde marzo de 2026, aseguró el ministro del Interior, John Reimberg, en su cuenta de X. “La cooperación internacional sigue golpeando al crimen organizado y sus economías”, añadió.

La policía ecuatoriana publicó en su cuenta de X videos en el que las autoridades reciben a las detenidas en el aeropuerto de Guayaquil al filo de la medianoche del martes y les leen sus derechos, mientras ambas lucen esposadas, con casco y chalecos antibala.

Ellas eran requeridas por la justicia ecuatoriana para responder en un juicio por lavado de activos en que ya se sentenció a otros familiares del capo criminal a penas de entre siete y 10 años de prisión por el lavado de más de 25 millones de dólares. También se les acusa por presuntos delitos de delincuencia organizada y asociación ilícita.

“Ellas son responsables de manejar el financiamiento de Los Choneros, del lavado de activos”, dijo Reimberg la noche del martes en radio FM Mundo, y precisó que además estaban detrás de la “financiación del narcotráfico, de actividades terroristas y de muchas muertes que han ocurrido en Ecuador”. “Les esperan penas no menores de 15 años de prisión”, añadió.

Captura

Las dos mujeres fueron capturadas el domingo en una población del noreste colombiano, en un operativo conjunto entre fuerzas de seguridad ecuatorianas y colombianas, en cooperación con Estados Unidos.

El apresamiento fue anunciado por los mandatarios de ambos países.

“Se las voy a enviar con gusto a mi buen amigo, el presidente Daniel Noboa”, escribió en X el presidente colombiano, Abelardo de la Espriella. “Colombia no será refugio para las finanzas del crimen transnacional”, acotó, a lo que su par ecuatoriano, Daniel Noboa, respondió: “Así se trabaja, Abelardo: juntos y con resultados”.

Reimberg confirmó que las dos serán recluidas en la cárcel femenina de máxima seguridad La Roca, donde también está presa otra pareja de “Fito”, Verónica Briones.

“Queen Michelle”, hija de Fito en redes sociales

La hija de Macías, que se presentaba en redes sociales como “Queen Michelle”, su nombre artístico, hacía constante ostentación de lujo y con frecuencia mostraba abundantes fajos de dólares.

En 2023 , uno de los videoclips de Michelle, titulado “El corrido del león”, desafió a la autoridad penitenciaria y causó un remezón en el país porque fue grabado en honor de su padre en el interior de la cárcel. El organismo de control negó haber autorizado la grabación.

En enero de 2024, luego de la misteriosa fuga de Fito desde una cárcel de Guayaquil, Peñarrieta y sus tres hijos, incluida Michelle, fueron detenidos en un barrio privado de Córdoba, en Argentina. Tras ser expulsadas de ese país arribaron a Ecuador, donde fueron liberadas por no contar con proceso judiciales pendientes.

Fito, Los Choneros y su influencia en el mundo criminal

Los Choneros, considerada entre las organizaciones criminales más grandes y violentas de Ecuador, surgió en la década de los 90. Las autoridades le atribuyen nexos con el cartel mexicano de Sinaloa, al que ha brindado por décadas seguridad y logística para el trasiego de droga.

Fito se fugó de una cárcel de máxima seguridad a inicios de 2024, en medio de una ola de violencia criminal, pero un año y medio después fue recapturado en su ciudad natal. En julio de 2025 se convirtió en el primer ecuatoriano en ser extraditado hacia Estados Unidos, donde enfrenta cargos por narcotráfico y tráfico de armas.

El mensaje de mano dura contra la delincuencia llega mientras Bolsonaro busca atraer el voto de las mujeres, que representan el 53% del electorado y desempeñaron un papel decisivo para darle al presidente, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, una ajustada victoria en 2022 sobre su padre, el expresidente Jair Bolsonaro.

“Las mujeres están empezando a tener una percepción de su papel en las elecciones”, afirmó Rachel Ripani, cofundadora del movimiento Levante Mulheres Vivas (Levántense Mujeres Vivas). “Están viendo su voto como algo que no quieren que sea manipulado”.

Las encuestas dan una ligera ventaja a Lula sobre el senador para los comicios del 4 de octubre, pero no se espera que ninguno obtenga mayoría absoluta, por lo que es probable que vayan al balotaje. Ambos han estado cortejando a los votantes indecisos, incluidas las mujeres, con propuestas para combatir la violencia de género, un tema central de la campaña a medida que la violencia contra las mujeres alcanza niveles récord, con varios casos de alto perfil bajo los focos.

“Estamos construyendo un Brasil (…) libre de feminicidio, donde ninguna mujer, dentro o fuera del hogar, viva bajo la amenaza de la violencia”, dijo Lula a jefes de Estado en la Asamblea General de Naciones Unidas la semana pasada en Nueva York. “Esta es una causa que el mundo entero debe abrazar”.

Más de una de cada tres mujeres en Brasil fue víctima de violencia sexual o de género a lo largo de un año, la cifra más alta desde que se empezaron a recopilar los datos en 2017, según un informe de 2025 del centro de estudios Foro Brasileño de Seguridad Pública. En 2025, 1.571 mujeres fueron víctimas de feminicidio, el peor dato anual desde que Brasil tipificó el delito en 2015, agregó. El feminicidio se define como el asesinato de una mujer en un entorno doméstico o por desprecio hacia las mujeres.

Casos ocurridos durante el último año han suscitado una condena pública generalizada, entre ellos la presunta violación en grupo de una adolescente de 17 años en Copacabana; la muerte de una mujer después de que su exnovio la atropellara, la dejara atrapada debajo de su auto y la arrastrara sobre el concreto durante un kilómetro (milla), y el presunto asesinato de una agente de la policía militar a manos de su esposo, integrante de la misma institución.

Las feministas buscan garantías

Además de la castración química, Bolsonaro propone ampliar los espacios que brindan refugio a las víctimas de la violencia y la creación de un asistente de inteligencia artificial que permitiría a las víctimas presentar denuncias, solicitar órdenes de protección y recibir orientación y apoyo.

Lula, por su parte, se comprometió a ampliar las protecciones introducidas durante su gobierno, en especial a finales del año pasado, luego de que una serie de casos provocase movilizaciones. Esas medidas incluyen el monitoreo en tiempo real de agresores que portan tobilleras electrónicas.

Los dos candidatos han defendido la imposición de castigos más severas para quienes cometen delitos violentos contra las mujeres, unas medidas que requerirían aprobación parlamentaria.

Conscientes del peso electoral de las mujeres, las activistas buscan aprovechar ese poder para exigir garantías de que esas promesas no quedarán en el olvido.

Grupos feministas piden que los candidatos firmen una carta comprometiéndose a abordar la violencia de género como prioridad y a votar a favor de un proyecto de ley que busca tipificar como delito la misoginia; realizar encuestas para definir prioridades, destacar candidaturas femeninas en sitios web y presentar una agenda legislativa compartida.

Carmen Silva, una feminista de 61 años que vive en Recife, una ciudad del noreste del país, señaló que este año su grupo, el Foro de Mujeres de Pernambuco, tiene dos prioridades: defender el limitado derecho al aborto y un compromiso para enfrentar el problema de la violencia de género mediante un enfoque múltiple que incluya la implementación de programas educativos.

“Por supuesto que es más fácil obtener compromisos durante el periodo electoral, pero cuando las candidatas sean elegidas, sacaremos partido de esas demandas”, manifestó. “No se trata solo de garantizar que las mujeres no sean asesinadas, sino de darles posibilidades de vivir una vida digna”.

Expertos afirman que parte del problema radica en la falta de fondos para desplegar medidas de protección y aplicar leyes que ya existen, un argumento planteado por candidatas feministas como Luciana Boiteux, que se postula para la asamblea legislativa del estado de Río.

“Tenemos leyes suficientes. Como legisladoras, velaremos por la aplicación de estas políticas públicas”, dijo Boiteux en un acto de campaña reciente frente a la Universidad Estatal de Río de Janeiro.

Representación desigual

Como ocurre con los esfuerzos para combatir la violencia contra las mujeres, los llamados a aumentar su representación política atraviesan las líneas partidarias.

Pese a su peso electoral, ocupan apenas alrededor del 19% de los escaños parlamentarios y del Senado. Brasil también tiene el nivel más bajo de representación femenina en la política de América Latina, de acuerdo con un estudio del Instituto Esfera.

“Las mujeres tienen una larga historia de movilización social en Brasil, pero últimamente quedó claro para estos movimientos que el Estado importa y que necesitan disputar ese poder”, afirmó Marlise Miriam de Matos Almeida, politóloga de la Universidad Federal de Minas Gerais.

“Los movimientos feministas han entendido que es necesario organizar el voto femenino y movilizar fuerzas para transformar ese poder cuantitativo en algo que permita que más mujeres sean elegidas”, agregó.

El asesinato de la concejala de Río Marielle Franco inspiró a algunas mujeres negras a postularse a cargos públicos, apuntó Matos Almeida, pero la violencia política y la insuficiencia de recursos siguen obstaculizando su participación en política.

El número de candidatas a la cámara baja de Brasil cayó un 24% en 2026 en comparación con 2022, según la Cámara de Diputados.

Ripani dijo que su movimiento está dispuesto a trabajar más allá de las líneas partidistas siempre que los candidatos y los elegidos declaren su apoyo a sus políticas.

“La prioridad para esta elección es votar por más mujeres que luchen por las mujeres”, sostuvo. “Necesitamos votar por personas que entiendan nuestra experiencia”.

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

On an Israel-bound flight Wednesday, a pilot stabbed another pilot, then apparently tried to crash the aircraft carrying dozens of Israelis, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. Passengers and crew subdued the attacker and the plane made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile, in Iran, authorities executed two people accused of violence against security forces during the country’s January protests. And the last U.S. forces left Iraq, under a Washington-Baghdad deal from two years ago.

Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Wednesday. Full coverage is available here.

Israeli strikes kill 5 Palestinians and wound 19 in Gaza

Israeli strikes killed five Palestinians and wounded 19 in Gaza, hospital officials said Wednesday, the latest of almost daily attacks since Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire nearly a year ago, halting the heaviest of the fighting.

Officials at Shifa Hospital said an Israeli strike killed a woman and critically wounded her husband in Gaza City, while another struck a bus, killing four and wounding at least 14. Elsewhere in the territory, a strike in Khan Younis wounded four Palestinians, officials at Nasser Hospital said.

Israel’s military didn’t immediately respond to questions about the bus strike, but said it was reviewing information about the strike in Khan Younis.

Israeli forces have carried out repeated airstrikes and frequently fire on Palestinians near military-held zones, killing more than 1,400 Palestinians since the ceasefire, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which maintains detailed records that are generally seen as reliable. Five Israeli soldiers have been killed in militant attacks over the same time period, while two more were killed by friendly fire.

Israel-bound plane makes emergency landing in Saudi Arabia

On an Israel-bound flight Wednesday from the United Arab Emirates, a pilot stabbed another pilot then apparently tried to crash the aircraft carrying dozens of Israelis, Netanyahu said. Passengers and crew staged a dramatic intervention to subdue the attacker and the plane eventually made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.

The FlyDubai flight landed safely after issuing an emergency alert and abruptly descending thousands of feet (meters). Israel scrambled warplanes over concerns of a possible hijacking.

Netanyahu said that Saudi Arabia had arrested a pilot of the flight.

Yasmin Abukasis said her daughter who was on the flight told her in a phone call that she could hear someone screaming “help!” Abukasis said that her daughter told her that the plane started to lose control, but eventually two people were able to wrest control of the plane, while others attempted to subdue an attacker on the floor of the plane.

— By Samy Magdy in Cairo, and Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel

Iran hangs 2 men on charges of violence during protests

Iran executed two men on Wednesday over what it said was their role in violence during nationwide anti-government protests in January, state media reported.

IRNA, citing the judiciary, said that the men took part in unrest in the northeastern city of Mashhad that left four security officers dead. The judiciary said that the men confessed to the violence, including setting fires and damaging public property. It also said that one had confessed to stabbing a member of Iran's paramilitary force. Iran’s Supreme Court upheld the sentences before they were carried out Wednesday morning.

The unrest began Dec. 28 amid anger over Iran’s collapsing currency and worsening economy and quickly spread across the country. Iranian authorities responded with a deadly crackdown.

Dozens of Iranians have since been executed in connection with the protests, according to state media in Iran. Executions aren't uncommon in Iran, where rights groups say the accused are often tried in secretive courts based on forced confessions extracted through torture.

Oil and fuel exports near pre-war level with alternate routes

Alternate export routes and a U.S.-protected route through the Strait of Hormuz have helped restore oil and fuel exports from the Gulf to near pre-war levels, according to figures from data firm Kpler.

Exports through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal — along with a pipeline to Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman and a U.S.-protected route that guides tankers at night — have been a key workaround after the threat of Iranian attacks disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, Kpler said during a Tuesday podcast.

About 21.8 million barrels per day of crude and fuel products made from crude are being shipped weekly, on average, compared to the pre-war baseline of 23.3 million barrels per day, Kpler said.

“We are getting closer to the norm, we are not at pre-conflict levels, but we are getting close to there,” said Matt Smith, Kpler's director of commodity research.

Still, the workarounds are time consuming and expensive.

Egypt's president says Suez Canal revenue down $20 billion

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi says that the Suez Canal has lost a cumulative $20 billion in revenue since the Hamas-led attack on Israel unleashed the war in Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, and because of maritime navigation disruptions from the Middle East conflict.

During a televised meeting on Tuesday with Cabinet members, top military leaders and local governors, el-Sissi blamed the government’s tight budget and little spending on education and health on the volatile geopolitical situation that led to increases in food and energy prices.

“Does that affect us? Of course it does affect us severely,” el-Sissi said.

Traffic was significantly disrupted after Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels began targeting vessels heading to Israel through the Suez Canal after the start of the war in Gaza. Since then, traffic has remained between 60% and 70% below prewar levels, according to a July report by the Oxford Economics research firm.

American troops leave Iraq

The U.S. military announced on Wednesday that it had completed the withdrawal of its troops from Iraq, ending a 12-year mission to fight the Islamic State group.

Baghdad touted the move as a sign of the country’s growing strength and sovereignty. It was also celebrated by Iran-backed groups, but raised concerns among some other Iraqis, particularly in the Kurdish region.

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell, in a statement, called it an “orderly departure” and said that the withdrawal “marks a transition from a wartime coalition mission to an Iraqi-led security effort supported by a more normal bilateral security relationship.”

Lebanon blast wounds a soldier and 3 civilians

The Lebanese army said that a soldier was seriously wounded in an explosion in the village of Nabatiyeh al-Fawqa on Wednesday. Three civilians were also wounded, it said.

Initially, the army said the soldier’s vehicle had been targeted by an Israeli strike, but later it said that the explosion was caused by a “suspicious object.” The army was escorting residents of the area in southern Lebanon to visit their houses, it said.

In June, the Lebanese and Israeli governments reached an agreement under which the Israeli military would withdraw gradually from southern Lebanon and allow the Lebanese army to take control, in exchange for disarming the militant Hezbollah group. However, implementation of the deal has stalled.

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This report will be updated throughout the day as new developments emerge.

Edmunds has extensively tested them all, and based on its expert ratings, these are the five best midsize two-row SUVs. Each has its own strengths, but fundamentally, they all offer a pleasing mix of space, utility and value. All of the following prices include destination fees

Subaru Outback

Redesigned for the 2026 model year, the latest Outback has a boxier look that enhances the utility for which Subarus are well known. Not only that, but the Outback is the only vehicle on this list with a starting price under $40,000. The standard engine isn’t very powerful, but the available turbocharged engine solves that. While Subaru doesn’t offer a more fuel-efficient hybrid version, your potential savings on the purchase price can pay for a lot of gas. The Outback is plenty capable in moderately challenging off-road situations and offers a roomy, comfortable interior with the latest technology. Safety is impressive, too, with a Top Safety Pick+ rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

2026 Outback starting price: $36,445

Honda Passport

Honda redesigned the Passport for 2026, giving the SUV a more rugged look and improved technology while retaining the model’s substantial passenger room and cargo space. Based on the three-row Honda Pilot, the Passport is one of the most spacious midsize two-row SUVs on the market today. It comes only with a V6 engine and all-wheel drive as standard, and fuel economy is lackluster as a result. Still, the Passport’s outright utility is undeniably appealing, and with its attractive styling, 5,000-pound standard towing capacity, and an IIHS Top Safety Pick+ rating, you might find it irresistible.

2026 Passport starting price: $46,445

Mazda CX-70

This is the sporty midsize SUV, engineered more for on-road driving satisfaction than off-road capability. It comes standard with a powerful turbocharged six-cylinder engine and is stable and precise in corners. The CX-70 also looks and feels more like an entry-luxury vehicle than a mainstream model, thanks to its upscale cabin design, and earns a Top Safety Pick+ rating from the IIHS. Mazda even offers an available plug-in hybrid powertrain that can help you save on gas. There are a couple of things to consider, however. The ride and seats are firm, so if you prefer something cushy for your tushy, this might not be the right choice. In-cabin storage space is on the stingy side, too, and using the infotainment system can be cumbersome and distracting.

2026 CX-70 starting price: $44,395; hybrid version: $46,095

Toyota Crown Signia

Shoppers prioritizing fuel economy over everything else should get a Toyota Crown Signia. It comes only with a hybrid powertrain that offers an EPA-estimated 38 mpg in combined city and highway driving. This Toyota also trades the rugged, go-anywhere design aesthetic for a more sophisticated wagon-influenced appearance and upscale interior. The front seats are quite comfortable, and while the back seat isn’t as roomy as what you might find in rivals, it’s still accommodating. What’s the downside? Well, cargo space is stingy, and there’s more road noise and engine noise than there should be. But if you like the Toyota brand and want something classier than a RAV4, the Crown Signia is compelling.

2026 Crown Signia starting price: $46,285

Jeep Grand Cherokee

Jeep recently made several changes to the Grand Cherokee, introducing a powerful new turbocharged four-cylinder engine as standard equipment while dropping the former V6 and plug-in hybrid powertrains. With the new engine, the Grand Cherokee offers up to 6,200 pounds of towing capacity, which is the most in the midsize SUV class. Jeep also offers a range of trims, allowing you to choose from a base model, an off-road-focused one, or a loaded model with up to three dashboard screens and an available hands-free driving assist system. However, the Grand Cherokee isn’t as comfortable as you might expect for the price, and Edmunds has encountered glitchy tech in its testing.

2026 Grand Cherokee starting price: $40,915

Edmunds says

When it comes to midsize two-row SUVs, the best choices in the segment cover all of the bases. Whether you plan to go off-road or stick to the beaten path, prefer a hybrid for improved efficiency or plenty of power and towing capacity, or value safety above all else, one of these top-rated picks delivers.

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This story was provided to The Associated Press by the automotive website Edmunds.

Christian Wardlaw is a contributor at Edmunds.

About 8 in 10 rural voters — an important voting bloc for Trump and fellow Republicans — said the Trump administration’s policies have had a negative effect or no impact on the health of people where they live. Most MAHA supporters, 68%, also feel this way, according to the national survey of more than 2,000 rural registered voters.

The findings signal an apparent disconnect between the Trump administration’s MAHA-branded policy priorities and rural America’s perception of their reach and effectiveness.

Iowa pastor Mike Jager, 58, is a registered Republican and considers himself part of the MAHA movement. The Trump administration’s health policies have had “minimal” impact on the health of his community, Jager said, but he added that Trump’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is moving the needle “in the right direction.”

“It’s a beginning,” Jager said. “It’s a big ship to try and turn around and course-correct.”

Kennedy has used the MAHA label to support various agendas, including abandoning long-standing vaccine guidance, researching ultraprocessed foods and investing in regenerative agriculture.

Jager lives in Sumner, Iowa, “less than a quarter mile from where the corn ends and the city begins.” He’s seen family members and neighbors develop diseases that he believes resulted in part from exposure to agricultural chemicals and consumption of unhealthy, processed foods.

In the June Republican primary for governor, Jager voted for Zach Lahn, a businessman and farmer who ran on a MAHA platform and beat out Trump-backed U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra. He plans to vote for him again in November.

Many rural voters are prioritizing health issues

About two-thirds of rural voters who support MAHA said it’s “extremely” or “very” important to them to vote for a candidate who does, too, while only 4 in 10 rural voters overall said the same.

Trump sought to seize on MAHA support during his campaign for another term two years ago. Now, amid tight midterm races, Kennedy has campaigned to galvanize the movement’s support. In May, he attended a MAHA bill signing with Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, and in August, he went fishing with Lahn, posting about it on social media.

Yet the survey indicates voters are noticing “this weird split in the Trump administration” between what Kennedy messages and what Trump says and does, said David Peterson, a political science professor at Iowa State University.

In Iowa, concerns about what’s causing rising cancer rates are “a big deal,” he said. For many people who identify with MAHA, being healthy includes taking on corporate agriculture and pharmaceutical companies that they think cause cancer, he added.

In the poll, views on healthcare access and costs largely diverged along party lines. Most Democratic and independent voters said the Trump administration’s healthcare policies have had a negative impact on their healthcare costs and the health and well-being of people in their communities. Republicans were likelier to say there hasn’t been an impact.

Talking on the phone from her 200-acre farm in Carroll County, Iowa, 71-year-old Donna Klocke said that her husband had died from cancer and that she has neighbors who also have cancer.

“It’s just very prevalent,” Klocke said. “We’re in a farming community. We use chemicals and pesticides and all kinds of things that aren’t necessarily good for us.”

Klocke, a Democrat, said the MAHA movement is a good idea because she cares about being healthy, but she does not consider herself part of it and will not be voting for a candidate who represents the movement.

Kennedy, who was an anti-vaccine activist before entering politics and has sent mixed messages to Americans about getting the measles vaccine, scares her.

“Measles are coming back and polio,” Klocke said. “It’s the measles that really gets me. It’s like, do you not understand how dangerous it is?”

Survey reflects angst over healthcare

Nearly half of rural voters said their communities don’t have enough doctors or other healthcare providers, and even more said there aren’t enough mental health workers specifically. The share of rural voters who said their community does not have enough hospitals increased to 35% from 21% in a similar question asked in a KFF-Washington Post survey in 2017.

And as with the general population, healthcare, gas and grocery costs are top pain points. At least 6 in 10 rural voters said they were worried about healthcare costs.

The level of worry varied based on coverage, with rural voters enrolled in employer plans or Medicare less likely to be worried. The survey found that 80% of working-age rural voters on Medicaid were very or somewhat worried about healthcare costs. Last year, Republicans passed a tax and spending bill that cut over $900 billion in projected Medicaid spending over a decade and mandated new eligibility requirements.

In the tiny community of Lipan, Texas, west of Dallas, Kim Solis and her husband have a handyman-and-home-remodel business and get their insurance on the marketplace. Since Trump returned to office, their premium payment jumped from zero to $166 a month. Their copays went up, and their deductibles each increased by $2,000.

Solis, 62, said she worries what will happen if they get a big medical bill.

“Certainly, we’d be in a world of hurt trying to take money out of savings or getting it out of our 401(k) just to be able to do something about it,” she said.

Most MAHA voters are also MAGA — but not all

Like the general population, rural voters said they trust their own doctors and healthcare providers for health information over government agencies or officials, according to the poll.

Trust in Kennedy and Trump fell largely along partisan lines. About 10% of rural Democratic voters reported having a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in Kennedy, compared with 74% of rural Republican voters. About 5% of rural Democrats and 69% of rural Republicans said they trust Trump a “great deal” or “fair amount” for reliable health information.

While Make America Great Again and MAHA identities are “linked in a lot of ways,” the rising costs of healthcare and groceries pose a challenge for those committed to the MAHA principles that Kennedy promotes, said Peterson, the Iowa State professor.

Buying healthy food “becomes, ‘I can’t afford to do that because of Trump’s policies,’” he said.

In Stamping Ground, Kentucky, Alma Johnson, 65, works night security at a horse farm.

Johnson voted for Trump in 2016, 2020 and 2024 and said she “pretty much” likes how Trump is running the country. But she said she is not a MAGA devotee, preferring to “think for myself.”

MAHA, however, is an easy sell for Johnson because, she said, she doesn’t think people should be able to buy junk food in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

Still, she said she hasn’t seen much impact from the Trump administration’s healthcare policies, including the new food pyramid.

“It takes a long time to change people, their habits, their thoughts or the things they do,” Johnson said.

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The poll of 2,241 U.S. adults registered to vote in rural areas of the country was conducted Aug. 12-24, 2026, using a sample drawn from the probability-based SSRS Opinion Panel. The margin of sampling error for the full sample is plus or minus 3 percentage points. In collaboration with AP, KFF researchers worked to design the survey sample and questionnaire, analyze and report findings.

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This report is a collaboration between The Associated Press and KFF Health News. KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism.

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Moscow’s steep escalation of its aerial campaign since the end of August is putting pressure on Ukraine as it braces for winter, when Russia regularly bombards energy facilities to deny Ukrainians heat, power and running water.

The heavy overnight attack caused power outages and prompted questions about whether it marked the start of Russia's anticipated cold weather campaign, which Ukrainian officials describe as an attempt to “weaponize winter.”

“There has been virtually no day since summer when the enemy did not attack energy infrastructure,” Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi said on Telegram. “But such a massive and combined attack happened for the first time since the end of the last heating season.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha noted the increase in Russian strikes has brought “days of almost uninterrupted air raid alerts across Ukraine.”

“Russia is intensifying its terror: jet-powered drones during the day, ballistic and cruise missiles at night, constant attacks against our cities and civilian life,” Sybiha said on X.

Ukrainian officials say Moscow is not engaging with U.S. efforts to halt the fighting, 4½ years after Russia invaded its neighbor. Moscow says it wants a comprehensive settlement rather than a temporary truce, but its demand for Ukraine to surrender land is unacceptable for Kyiv.

Russia exploits Ukraine's air defense gaps

Nationwide, the Russian attacks killed seven Ukrainian civilians and wounded 24, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, without providing details.

A boy was killed in an attack on a private home in Vyshhorod, a city in the wider Kyiv region, said Tymur Tkachenko, head of the regional military administration. Three other people were rescued from the rubble, he added.

Three other people were killed by attacks in the capital, with four injured, according to authorities.

Russia fired 2,850 jet-propelled drones at Ukraine in August but by Tuesday it had already launched 3,177 this month, Ukrainian air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said.

Russia has exploited gaps in Ukrainian air defenses by firing ballistic missiles and new jet-powered drones, both of which are hard to stop. Air raid alerts are disrupting daily life, sending people running for shelter and denting economic output.

The attacks come in waves, Ihnat told Ukrainian television late Tuesday, mostly aimed at Kyiv and the surrounding region. Ukraine needs more missiles for U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems to counter ballistic missiles and for other ground-based air defenses, he said.

The main Russian targets were energy infrastructure in Kyiv and the surrounding region, Zelenskyy said on social media, describing it as “a difficult attack” as Moscow stretches Ukraine's air defenses.

Zelenskyy thanked foreign countries supporting Ukraine for recent deliveries of air defense help. “And the closer we get to winter, the more of this protection we need," he said. "We must do everything to ensure that Russia’s bet on ballistic missile and drone terror does not pay off.”

The Russian Defense Ministry said its overnight attack hit a hydroelectric and a thermal power plant, an electrical substation, an energy storage facility and a data center.

Ukrainian officials didn’t specifically confirm those strikes, as Kyiv wants to deny Moscow intelligence about the effectiveness of its attacks. Authorities reported hits on civilian areas of at least four Kyiv districts.

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Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal.

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

Fue entonces cuando deslaves y fuertes lluvias desplazaron a más de 100.000 personas en todo el país, y el gobierno venezolano se apresuró a aliviar la crisis humanitaria construyendo decenas de apartamentos en la franja de tierra flanqueada por las aguas cristalinas del mar Caribe al norte y montañas frondosas al sur.

Los edificios, levantados rápidamente sobre suelo limoso, no pudieron resistir la fuerza de los terremotos consecutivos del 24 de junio, dijeron expertos a la AP en decenas de entrevistas. Los sismos mataron a más de 6.500 personas y dejaron a más de 17.000 sin hogar.

A continuación, algunas conclusiones de la investigación de la AP:

— En la prisa por construir viviendas, el gobierno desatendió los peligros derivados del historial de deslaves e inundaciones de la zona, lo que podría aumentar los riesgos que plantean los terremotos. Esto se debe a que los edificios se construirían sobre el suelo suelto y pedregoso que había sido depositado allí durante siglos por inundaciones y deslaves. La cercanía del área a la falla de San Sebastián —que corre frente a la costa y pasa justo por debajo del estado La Guaira— también podría agravar los riesgos.

— Como parte del emblemático programa de vivienda del gobierno se levantaron torres de apartamentos en la parroquia Caraballeda del estado. Las personas a quienes se les asignaron esos apartamentos se alegraron cuando por fin recibieron las llaves, pero no sabían que la altura de los edificios los haría propensos al colapso. Esto se debe a que los edificios de entre 10 y 20 pisos podrían terminar oscilando exactamente al mismo ritmo que las ondas sísmicas, en un fenómeno conocido como resonancia. Esa sincronización hace que el edificio se balancee más y durante más tiempo, lo que ejerce presión adicional sobre las columnas y aumenta la probabilidad de daños y derrumbe, señalaron expertos.

— Con magnitudes de 7,2 y 7,5, los terremotos fueron increíblemente potentes por sí solos. Pero además provocaron el tipo de golpe que más temen los ingenieros: un pulso cercano a la falla. El geólogo de la Universidad Central de Venezuela Michael Schmitz explicó que, cuando la falla se desplazó, la energía sísmica se acumuló en el frente de la ruptura a medida que avanzaba hacia el este, asestando “un golpe muy fuerte” a la base de los edificios que los dejó sin soporte de forma abrupta y sin capacidad de disipar energía mediante el balanceo.

— A diferencia de la magnitud de un terremoto, la intensidad de la sacudida varía de una comunidad a otra e incluso de una calle a otra. El gobierno había dejado inactivos los instrumentos sísmicos locales, lo que dejó a los científicos sin datos para determinar la intensidad del movimiento. Fue entonces cuando Eduardo Miranda, profesor de ingeniería civil y ambiental en la Universidad de Stanford, y sus colegas recurrieron al análisis de video captado por dos cámaras de seguridad cerca de una bolera en Caraballeda, la población más afectada de La Guaira. Las imágenes muestran cómo ocho edificios colapsan simultáneamente en menos de un segundo.

— Al seguir cuidadosamente el movimiento escena a escena, el equipo reconstruyó cómo el terremoto produjo el movimiento observado en cámara, según un artículo elaborado por el equipo de Miranda que fue compartido con la AP. Ese análisis reveló uno de los mayores movimientos del suelo jamás documentados en el mundo y ha aportado la única información cuantitativa sobre el movimiento del terreno del sismo cerca de la ruptura. Miranda indicó que habría sido difícil que estructuras que cumplieran normas de seguridad en Japón, que tiene algunos de los códigos de construcción más estrictos, hubieran sobrevivido a lo ocurrido el 24 de junio.

— El artículo, que está bajo revisión por pares para su publicación en The Seismic Record, la revista en línea de la Sociedad Sismológica de Estados Unidos, determinó que los edificios en Caraballeda fueron empujados tan lejos en una dirección durante tanto tiempo que alcanzaron sus puntos de ruptura, dijo Miranda.

— Se desconoce si los contratistas del gobierno siguieron los códigos de construcción de Venezuela. También se desconoce si los funcionarios realizaron estudios de suelo antes de que comenzara la construcción, o si esos estudios fueron ignorados. El gobierno no ha hecho públicos planos, estudios de suelo ni registros de inspección. Francisco “Farruco” Sesto, quien encabezó la oficina responsable del programa de vivienda del entonces presidente Hugo Chávez, no respondió a una solicitud de entrevista de la AP.

— El gobierno de la presidenta interina Delcy Rodríguez no ha proporcionado información sobre análisis forenses en el lugar, que expertos consideran cruciales para determinar las causas y responsabilidades, pero sus labores de limpieza, incluida la voladura con explosivos de edificios dañados, están en marcha, al igual que un esfuerzo de reconstrucción. Expertos dijeron que esperan que el gobierno no repita simplemente los errores de hace 15 años y que, en cambio, adopte un enfoque cuidadoso y reflexivo en sus esfuerzos de reconstrucción. También señalaron que el costo del trabajo adicional de diseño y construcción necesario para levantar edificios altos capaces de resistir terremotos en la región probablemente disuadirá al estado y a algunos inversionistas privados de desarrollar ciertas áreas.

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Burke informó desde San Francisco. Los periodistas de The Associated Press Michael Biesecker en Pittsburgh y Ryan Manzuk y Marshall Ritzel en Nueva York contribuyeron a este despacho.

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

A rare Ivy League graduate playing big league baseball, the baby-faced 27-year-old has filled the offensive void created by Aaron Judge's injury-filled season. Rice had a night to remember in the AL Wild Card Series opener, hitting a grand slam with six RBIs and four hits in a 9-0 rout of the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday night.

He tied the Yankees RBIs record for a postseason game, matching Bobby Richardson, Bernie Williams, Hideki Matsui and Robinson Canó.

“Ben is Mr. Consistency, on top of being a Ivy League graduate," teammate Spencer Jones said. “He’s incredibly smart. He doesn’t take himself too seriously.”

A 12th-round pick in the 2021 amateur draft from Dartmouth, Rice played just 30 college games over three years due to the coronavirus pandemic. He grew up in Cohasset, Massachusetts, less than an hour’s drive south of Fenway Park.

He was a Yankees fan surrounded by Red Sox Nation, idolizing New York captain Derek Jeter.

“I was always playing with the Yankees on MLB 2K6 when I was a little guy. What a team to root for. They’re always so good. Pretty cool," he said.

Rice thought back to his youth at Joseph Osgood Elementary School.

“Definitely wearing the Yankees jersey to the first-grade picture day probably got some weird looks," he said.

Rice was a 10-year-old in Massachusetts when he watched the Yankees win their last title in 2009.

“It’s probably a little hazy for me,” he said. “I was pretty young.”

Rice is likely to get MVP votes after leading the Yankees with 41 homers, 97 RBIs and 105 runs while hitting .264 in his second full big league season.

“Count on one hand, one of the best hitters in the league,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.

New York struggled when Judge was out with a toe injury in 2023 and had difficulty generating offense this year when their captain missed most of the season with a broken rib. Rice became the key cog, living up to the “Benny Barrels” nickname given to him by Yankees broadcaster David Cone.

Rice was hitting .306 through May, then batted .196 in June. An 18-for-58 (.119) slide after the All-Star break dropped his season average to .248 on Aug. 22 but he hit .327 (37 for 113) over the remainder.

“For as great a year as he had, he had a stretch there for a month where it was a grind and a struggle,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “But he kind of got himself out of it. Really finished the last month with a flurry, and obviously carried it in here the first game of the postseason.”

When Rice debuted with the Yankees two years ago, he joined Yankees coach Brad Ausmus, Kyle Hendricks and Jim Beattie as Dartmouth graduates in the major leagues. Rice's degree is in psychology.

“He's a Dartmouth grad — he's an intelligent guy,” Ausmus said when Rice first made it to the big leagues.

Before heading to Yankee Stadium, Rice makes sure to start every day with scrambled eggs and toast.

“Same breakfast every day. Same routine in the cage every day. The whole timeline of the day is the same. Really just everything," he said. “Of course, you’ve got different pitchers on the mound, there’s different ways you prepare, but I think the consistency just leaves you asking yourself fewer questions throughout the day because you just go out there, OK, this is what I do, and this is how I’m going to go about my business and just be ready for whenever the game starts.”

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Las comunidades caribeñas junto al mar en esa zona, cerca de Caracas, estaban cerca de una importante falla y de una cordillera que había desatado repetidos desastres naturales destructivos. El suelo era malo, un tipo de limo que solo amplificaría la sacudida en un terremoto.

Al ignorar el consejo, el gobierno levantó exactamente el tipo de edificios equivocado para ese lugar: altos complejos de apartamentos de concreto.

Todo era una receta para la destrucción, según una investigación de The Associated Press basada en entrevistas con decenas de ingenieros, sismólogos y exfuncionarios del gobierno.

La gente de La Guaira nunca tuvo oportunidad el 24 de junio, cuando potentes sismos consecutivos sacudieron la zona.

Carlos Valdés, jefe del departamento de sismología del Instituto de Geofísica de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, afirmó que estaban “retando a la naturaleza” cuando los funcionarios del gobierno decidieron construir allí.

Los sismos mataron a más de 6.500 personas y dejaron a más de 17.000 sin hogar. El gobierno de la presidenta encargada, Delcy Rodríguez, ha hecho poco para apaciguar la rabia de quienes sobrevivieron a los sismos en los tres meses transcurridos desde aquella noche de junio, y no ha abordado por qué colapsaron tantos edificios y murieron tantas personas.

La respuesta, de hecho, se remonta a 2010 y a decisiones tomadas después de que deslaves y fuertes lluvias desplazaran a más de 100.000 personas en todo el país, dijeron a AP expertos y exfuncionarios del gobierno.

Fue entonces cuando el gobierno venezolano se apresuró a aliviar una crisis humanitaria construyendo decenas de apartamentos en la franja de tierra flanqueada por aguas cristalinas del mar Caribe al norte y montañas frondosas al sur.

El entorno era idílico. La tierra debajo no lo era.

Una zona propensa a desastres naturales y terremotos

Cuando Venezuela fue sacudida por los terremotos de magnitud 7,2 y 7,5, al menos 14 torres de apartamentos en La Guaira se desplomaron casi al mismo tiempo, aplastando un piso sobre otro y atrapando a cientos de personas dentro. Se produjeron incendios cuando explotaron tanques de gas. La gente gritaba pidiendo ayuda. Pocos sobrevivieron. Se recuperaron cuerpos de lo que antes eran dormitorios, escaleras, pasillos y cocinas. Muchos fueron hallados abrazados.

La zona, en el norte de Venezuela, no es ajena a los desastres naturales.

Un terremoto mortal de magnitud 6,6 golpeó el área en 1967, lo que impulsó, entre otras acciones, el diseño de lineamientos de construcción sismorresistente y la creación de la Fundación Venezolana de Investigaciones Sismológicas, equivalente al Servicio Geológico de Estados Unidos. Al igual que los terremotos de junio, destruyó edificios en la parroquia Caraballeda de La Guaira y en la capital de Venezuela, Caracas.

Pero ningún desastre había devastado La Guaira como las inundaciones y deslaves que mataron a decenas de miles de personas en 1999. Tras la tragedia, el gobierno del presidente Hugo Chávez eligió al ingeniero y entonces ministro de Ciencia Carlos Genatios para encabezar un plan de reconstrucción.

Su equipo trabajó con expertos locales e internacionales para desarrollar un programa de mitigación de riesgos para el estado, que incluía restricciones de uso del suelo a lo largo de la franja costera principalmente para reducir los peligros asociados a las lluvias y, en menor medida, a los terremotos, contó Genatios a AP en una entrevista.

“Hay zonas, terrenos, que no se debían usar porque posiblemente haya inundaciones ahí a la hora de una crecida muy grande, y entonces allí tú pones estructuras muy livianas o parques, canchas, cosas así que no produzcan un mayor daño y que no haya muertos especialmente”, expresó Genatios.

Genatios indicó que los científicos advirtieron a los funcionarios que el historial de deslaves e inundaciones de la zona incrementaría los riesgos que plantean los terremotos. Eso se debe a que cualquier edificio se construiría sobre el suelo suelto y pedregoso depositado allí durante siglos por inundaciones y deslaves.

La zona también estaba cerca de la importante falla de San Sebastián, que corre frente a la costa y pasa justo por debajo del estado La Guaira.

El gobierno desestimó los peligros. En 2011, por instrucción de Chávez, inició un enorme impulso para ampliar la vivienda pública y ayudar a las personas desplazadas por lluvias torrenciales que provocaron inundaciones y deslaves mortales a finales de 2010. El gobierno había reubicado a los desplazados —muchos de ellos simpatizantes del movimiento socialista, como lo describía Chávez— en escuelas públicas, edificios gubernamentales, instalaciones militares e incluso el palacio presidencial.

Al gobierno le faltaba suficiente tierra para construir sus proyectos, lo que llevó a expropiaciones y a que el propio Chávez alentara a los venezolanos a ayudar al estado a elaborar una lista de terrenos abandonados. A medida que se levantaban edificios, organizaciones gremiales y de vigilancia expresaron inquietudes sobre el cumplimiento de los proyectos con las normas de construcción, incluidos los requisitos de diseño sismorresistente, y sobre la calidad de los materiales utilizados, como el cemento y el acero.

El auge de los complejos de apartamentos

Se construyeron torres de vivienda que recordaban a los rascacielos prefabricados de la era comunista de Alemania Oriental en Caraballeda como parte del programa Gran Misión Vivienda Venezuela. Cada torre pasó a conocerse como una “O-P-P”, una versión abreviada de “O-P-P-P-E”, el acrónimo en español de la oficina que Chávez encargó de ejecutar el programa. Todas menos cuatro de las 43 torres levantadas en el estado La Guaira estaban en Caraballeda.

Un boletín estatal publicó una foto de una de las torres con un pie de foto que proclamaba que el OPPPE 30 “alza orgulloso su figura como un símbolo de justicia revolucionaria”.

Las personas a quienes se les asignaron apartamentos en Caraballeda estaban encantadas cuando por fin recibieron las llaves. Muchas habían vivido con familiares o en refugios tras ser desplazadas por las lluvias torrenciales de 2010. Adultos y niños por fin tenían dormitorios propios. Los baños venían con puertas. La playa quedaba a pocos minutos a pie.

Sin embargo, notaron problemas justo después de mudarse: el servicio de agua potable era prácticamente inexistente; los ascensores dejaron de funcionar; y los ductos de basura se convirtieron en criaderos de ratas y cucarachas.

Y desconocían los riesgos durante un terremoto. Los complejos de apartamentos de entre 10 y 20 pisos podían terminar oscilando exactamente al mismo ritmo que las ondas sísmicas, en un fenómeno conocido como resonancia. Esa sincronización hace que el edificio se balancee más y durante más tiempo, lo que ejerce presión adicional sobre las columnas e incrementa la probabilidad de daños y colapso, señalaron expertos.

Se desconoce si los contratistas del gobierno siguieron los códigos de construcción de Venezuela. También se desconoce si los funcionarios realizaron estudios de suelo antes de que comenzara la construcción, o si esos estudios fueron ignorados. El gobierno no ha hecho públicos los planos, los estudios de suelo, los registros de inspección ni la “memoria descriptiva”, un documento que debería incluir especificaciones de ingeniería y arquitectura.

Francisco “Farruco” Sesto, quien encabezó la oficina responsable de la misión de vivienda de Chávez, no respondió a una solicitud de entrevista de AP.

Menos de dos semanas después de los terremotos, le dijo a un influencer vinculado al gobierno que el terreno elegido para los proyectos de vivienda pública fue sometido a estudios de suelo. No mostró pruebas que respaldaran esa afirmación, pero sí rechazó las críticas posteriores al terremoto, al sostener que forman parte de una “campaña insidiosa y maliciosa” contra la misión de vivienda, y aparentemente intentó trasladar la responsabilidad al sector privado.

“Lo que quiero recordar es que la inmensa mayoría de las viviendas hechas por el estado en realidad están hechas también por el sector privado”, dijo Sesto. “El estado es el gran, digamos, el gran como organizador… ¿Quién hace los estudios de suelo? Fundamentalmente, empresas especializadas que son privadas”.

Los ingenieros temían el potente golpe que asestaron los sismos de junio

Los venezolanos quedaron impactados al ver los edificios colapsados junto al mar. Los científicos también quedaron devastados, pero no sorprendidos. Los terremotos no sólo fueron potentes. Asestaron el tipo de golpe que más temen los ingenieros: un pulso cercano a la falla.

“Fue prácticamente instantáneo (...) muy, muy, muy violento, muy rápido”, relató el geólogo Michael Schmitz, de la Universidad Central de Venezuela, quien antes estuvo vinculado al organismo de monitoreo sísmico del país.

Schmitz explicó que, cuando la falla se desplazó, la energía sísmica se acumuló en el frente de la ruptura a medida que avanzaba hacia el este, lo que produjo “un golpe muy fuerte en su base”. Ese pulso, añadió, “le quitó la pata en seco sin que el edificio pudiera diseminar la energía, para lo que está normalmente diseñado”.

En contraste, los edificios del lado opuesto de la cordillera, en Caracas, que también tienen amplificación por sedimentos, resistieron los terremotos porque pudieron oscilar para disipar la energía.

Un estudio reveló que el sismo fue particularmente devastador

Eduardo Miranda, profesor de ingeniería civil y ambiental en la Universidad de Stanford, y un equipo de investigadores visitaron Venezuela días después del sismo para ver si podían determinar por qué los terremotos habían sido tan devastadores.

Sin instrumentos locales ni datos para determinar la intensidad del sacudimiento, Miranda y su equipo de científicos recurrieron al análisis de video captado por dos cámaras de seguridad cerca de una bolera en Caraballeda, la comunidad más afectada de La Guaira. Las imágenes son dramáticas: en menos de un segundo, ocho edificios colapsan simultáneamente.

Al seguir cuidadosamente el movimiento escena a escena, el equipo pudo reconstruir cómo el terremoto produjo el movimiento observado en cámara, según un artículo elaborado por el equipo de Miranda y compartido con AP.

Ese análisis reveló uno de los mayores movimientos del suelo jamás documentados en el mundo y ha aportado la única información cuantitativa sobre el movimiento del suelo del sismo cerca de la ruptura. Miranda dijo que habría sido difícil que estructuras que cumplieran normas de seguridad en Japón, que tiene algunos de los códigos de construcción más estrictos, hubieran sobrevivido a lo ocurrido el 24 de junio.

El artículo, que está en revisión por pares para su publicación en The Seismic Record, la revista en línea de la Sociedad Sismológica de Estados Unidos, determinó que los edificios en Caraballeda fueron empujados tan lejos en una dirección durante tanto tiempo que alcanzaron sus puntos de ruptura, explicó Miranda.

“La razón número uno del gran impacto en La Guaira es definitivamente cuán fuerte fue el movimiento del suelo”, dijo Miranda en una entrevista. “Por lo general, los colapsos son el resultado de varios factores, pero ese es un factor principal abrumador de los problemas que había allí”.

Miranda aún no ha compartido los resultados del estudio con el gobierno venezolano, pero su equipo ha puesto a los funcionarios al tanto del análisis.

“Está claro que necesitan elevar el nivel de diseño”, sostuvo.

Los expertos temen que el gobierno vuelva a cometer los mismos errores

El poliestireno encontrado entre los escombros llevó a muchos residentes a acusar al gobierno de usar materiales de calidad inferior para reducir costos. Sus acusaciones también se basaron en tramas de corrupción bien documentados en los que funcionarios y contratistas colaboraban para sobrefacturar al estado, usar materiales más baratos de los reportados y quedarse con la diferencia.

El gobierno no ha proporcionado información sobre análisis forenses en el sitio que, según expertos, son cruciales para determinar causas y responsabilidades, pero sus labores de limpieza —incluida la demolición con explosivos de edificios dañados— están en marcha, al igual que un esfuerzo de reconstrucción.

El gobierno ha estimado que más de 17.000 personas fueron desplazadas por los terremotos. Miles de ellas han vivido desde entonces en refugios, campamentos o aceras cerca de sus antiguas viviendas. A algunas se les han asignado hogares en edificios de vivienda pública en Caracas. Sin embargo, el gobierno también ha prometido reconstruir La Guaira y anunció semanas después del terremoto que ya había localizado terrenos en ese estado donde la construcción podría comenzar pronto.

Los expertos dijeron que esperan que el gobierno venezolano no repita simplemente los errores de hace 15 años y, en cambio, adopte un enfoque cuidadoso y reflexivo en sus esfuerzos de reconstrucción. También señalaron que el trabajo adicional de diseño y construcción necesario para levantar edificios altos capaces de resistir terremotos en la región probablemente disuadirá al Estado y a algunos inversionistas privados de desarrollar ciertas áreas.

“Aquí la pregunta es ¿a que costo?", planteó Valdés. “Yo lo preguntaría de otra manera: Cuánto cuesta una vida?”.

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Burke informó desde San Francisco. Michael Biesecker contribuyó desde Pittsburgh, y Ryan Manzuk y Marshall Ritzel desde Nueva York.

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

That didn't matter to them as they knew that the playoffs were a whole new affair.

New York pulled off a historic upset, becoming the first No. 8 seed to eliminate a No. 1 seed in the league’s 30-year history by completing the two-game sweep of the Minnesota Lynx on Tuesday night with an 87-71 victory in Game 2 of the quarterfinals.

“We know we’re not a traditional eight seed. We understand once the playoffs come, it’s a new season,” said Sabrina Ionescu. "We have more to do.”

Next up for the Liberty is a semifinals matchup against either Atlanta or Washington. The Dream are up 1-0 with Game 2 of that series on Wednesday night.

The Liberty's Big 3 of Ionescu, Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones were dominant on Tuesday night. The trio combined to score or assist on 70 of the team's points — one less than the Lynx had in total.

Those same three stars helped lead New York to its first championship in franchise history two years ago. Now they are looking to try and do it again, from a much harder spot. They'll have to start the best-of-five semifinals on the road again.

“We have bigger goals we want to accomplish,” Ionescu said. “Tonight we took steps in the right direction. Our best basketball is yet to come. We know there’s so much better basketball to be played."

That's a scary thing for the rest of the league.

“It feels good, we understand who we are as a team,” Jones said. “We’re not listening to outside noise, we understand that we can do a lot of great things. We feel like we can play with anybody and beat anybody. That’s the mindset we have moving forward."

A year after losing in the first round to Phoenix after going up 1-0 in that series, New York was determined not to have that happen again. They had a rough regular season with a new coach in Chris DeMarco. But the team said they were learning from their mistakes and peaking at the right time.

“Tonight showed that we have been taking those steps in the right direction,” Jones said. “Good for those things to materialize in a game that matters so much.”

The Liberty were up five points after one quarter and led 40-35 with 2:39 left in the half. New York scored nine of the final 11 points in the second quarter to go up 49-37 at the break.

New York was up 52-39 with 6:26 left in the third when Stewart drove to the basket and was hit in the face by Olivia Miles as she tried to block the shot. Stewart was down for a minute as the officials reviewed the play and upgraded the play to a flagrant-1 foul.

As Stewart walked off the court, she raised her hands to the sellout crowd of 17,593, who serenaded her with “M-V-P!” chants. Stewart hit both free throws.

Minnesota couldn’t get closer than seven points the rest of the way.

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See AP’s full WNBA coverage here

The withdrawal, agreed on two years ago, comes against the backdrop of the ongoing war between the United States and Iran that has also sometimes spilled over into Iraq, with Iran-backed militias firing on U.S. troops and the U.S. striking the groups' strongholds.

In recent years, Washington has appeared to seek to shift its focus from the Middle East toward Asia, but that shift has been inconsistent, with the Pentagon alternating between reducing its Mideast presence and then finding itself engaging in new conflicts — including the ongoing war in Iran.

Baghdad touted the end of the U.S. mission as a sign of the country's increasing strength and sovereignty.

The withdrawal was also celebrated by Iran-backed groups but raised concerns among some other Iraqis, particularly in the Kurdish region, where many fear a resurgence of the Islamic State group as well as more attacks by Iran-linked groups, possibly emboldened by the departure of U.S. forces.

Meanwhile, questions loom around the future of the Iraqi militias, which the Baghdad government has sought to disarm, with little success so far.

A new phase in Iraq after decades of US involvement

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement that U.S. troops and equipment had completed an “orderly departure” from the air base in Irbil, in northern Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region.

“This milestone reflects the success of a 12-year campaign that defeated ISIS as an organized military threat in Iraq and across the region,” he said. “It also marks a transition from a wartime coalition mission to an Iraqi-led security effort supported by a more normal bilateral security relationship.”

He added that the U.S. military “will continue to provide targeted training and intelligence support to our Iraqi partners.”

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi presided over the handover ceremony and described the U.S. withdrawal as the beginning of a “new phase, one defined by Iraq’s sovereignty, the strength of its institutions, the readiness of its forces, the unity of its decision-making, and balanced partnerships with its friends.”

He said Iraqi security forces will continue the fight against IS and the government will ensure that non-state groups no longer hold weapons.

U.S. troops invaded Iraq in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein. They departed in 2011, but three years later, Iraqi authorities invited a smaller U.S.-led mission to fight the Islamic State group, which had rampaged across Iraq, seizing large swaths of territory.

With the extremist group reduced to scattered sleeper cells, Washington and Baghdad agreed in 2024 to wind the mission down.

U.S. troops pulled out of bases in most areas of Iraq last year but maintained a small presence of hundreds of troops in the semiautonomous northern Kurdish region. Bases there have regularly come under attack since the U.S. and Israel launched their war against Iran on Feb. 28. Iran-backed Iraqi militias also have coordinated with Yemen’s Houthi rebels to attack Saudi Arabia.

The future of militias remains unclear

The Iraqi government initially linked the Sept. 30 deadline for U.S. withdrawal to the disarmament of non-state armed groups by that date.

While a handful of less-influential militias have agreed to turn over their weapons, powerful groups close to Iran rejected the prospect or set conditions for disarming that the government would be unlikely to meet.

Al-Zaidi has since walked back the deadline. He told The New York Times earlier this month that the deadline for militia disarmament has been pushed to June 2027.

The effects of the U.S. withdrawal may not be immediately visible, particularly since the U.S. military presence had already been scaled down. But officials in Iraq's Kurdish region have expressed anxiety about the departure and particularly about the removal of U.S. air defense systems.

The Kurdish regional government's Peshmerga Ministry said the Kurdish region had faced more than 1,000 drone and ballistic-missile attacks during the recent U.S.-Iran conflict.

“The departure of the United States from the Kurdistan Region under these complex regional circumstances, without the provision of a defense system, is a matter of concern,” the statement said.

Iran-allied groups in Iraq, meanwhile, have celebrated the U.S. withdrawal.

“The expulsion of the occupation forces, defeated, from the land of Iraq is the beginning of full sovereignty,” Abu Mujahid al-Assaf, a security official with the powerful Kataib Hezbollah militia, said in a statement.

He added a warning to al-Zaidi and his government not to carry out American plans, threatening that “any government that does not work for the benefit of the people will be overthrown by all means.”

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias, said in a statement that negotiations with the government over the regulation of weapons have not resulted in an agreement and that it was “not bound by any timeline or agreement” announced by the government or political entity. The group said it is open to “any dialogue that guarantees Iraq’s sovereignty and dignity.”

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Associated Press writer Abby Sewell in Istanbul contributed to this report.

The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index, or PMI, climbed to 50.1 from 49.8 in August, China’s National Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday. The index reading, based on an official monthly survey of companies, was in line with what economists had expected.

PMI is measured on a scale of between 0 and 100 and a reading above 50 reflects an expansion.

Several subindexes remained in expansion territory. The subindex on production rose to 51.7 from 50.4 in August. The subindex on new orders was at 50.5, down slightly from 50.6, while new export orders eased to 50.0 from 50.1.

A separate private survey, the RatingDog PMI, also showed China’s manufacturing PMI advanced to 52.1 in September from 51.5 in August, indicating improvements in the manufacturing sector.

Wednesday’s reports came ahead of China’s weeklong October national holiday in which domestic consumption and spending are closely watched by policymakers.

They also followed new key measures announced in China on Tuesday to support its economy, including new subsidies for Chinese homebuyers’ mortgage interest payments.

China’s economy has been under growing pressure of a slowdown as domestic demand and investment remained sluggish, in part hit by weaknesses in the property sector, even as the global artificial intelligence boom has buoyed Chinese exports of high-tech goods.

“Manufacturing has been a relative strength this year, though it has mostly been driven by external demand as domestic consumption and investment lag,” Lynn Song, chief economist for Greater China at ING Bank, wrote in a commentary.

Some economists believe China is on track to surpass last year’s record $1.2 trillion trade surplus. Recent improvements in U.S.-China relationships, including a two-month extension of a trade truce between the two superpowers until January, are likely to help improve bilateral trade.

It was then that mudslides and heavy rain displaced more than 100,000 people across the country, and the Venezuelan government raced to ease the humanitarian crisis by constructing scores of apartments on the strip of land flanked by crystalline waters of the Caribbean Sea to the north and lush mountains to the south.

The buildings, quickly erected in silty soil, were no match for the power of the back-to-back earthquakes on June 24, experts told the AP in dozens of interviews. The quakes killed more than 6,500 people and left over 17,000 homeless.

Here are some takeaways from the AP’s investigation.

— In the rush to build homes, the government disregarded dangers posed by the area’s history of mudslides and floods, which could enhance the risks posed by earthquakes. That’s because the buildings would be constructed on the loose, rocky soil that had been deposited there over centuries by floods and mudslides. The area’s proximity to the San Sebastian Fault line — running off the coast and right underneath La Guaira state — could also compound risks.

— Apartment towers went up in the state's parish of Caraballeda as part of the government’s signature housing program. People assigned those apartments were delighted when they finally received the keys, but they did not know that the height of the buildings would make them prone to collapse. That is because buildings that were between 10 and 20 floors could end up swaying at the exact same pace as the seismic waves, in a phenomenon known as resonance. The syncing results in the building swaying farther and longer, putting additional pressure on columns and increasing the likelihood of damage and collapse, experts said.

— With magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5, the earthquakes were incredibly powerful by themselves. But they also dealt the very type of blow engineers fear most, a near-fault pulse. Central University of Venezuela geologist Michael Schmitz said that when the fault shifted, seismic energy stacked up at the front of the rupture as it moved eastward, delivering “a very strong blow” to the base of buildings, abruptly knocking their support and leaving them unable to dissipate energy by swaying.

— Unlike the magnitude of an earthquake, the intensity of the shaking varies from community to community and even street to street. The government had let local seismic instruments go dark, leaving scientists without data to determine the intensity of the shaking. That’s when Eduardo Miranda, a Stanford University professor of civil and environmental engineering, and his colleagues turned to analyzing video captured by two security cameras near a bowling alley in Caraballeda, the most affected community in La Guaira. The footage shows eight buildings collapse simultaneously in less than a second.

— By carefully tracking the motion frame by frame, the team reconstructed how the earthquake produced the motion seen on camera, according to a paper produced by Miranda’s team that was shared with the AP. That analysis revealed one of the largest ground motions ever documented in the world and has provided the only quantitative information on the ground-motion of the quake near the rupture. Miranda said it would have been difficult for structures meeting safety standards in Japan, which has among the strictest building codes, to have survived what happened June 24.

— The paper under peer review for publication in The Seismic Record, the online journal of the Seismological Society of America, determined that buildings in Caraballeda were pushed so far in one direction for so long that they hit their breaking points, Miranda said.

— It is not known whether government contractors followed Venezuela’s building codes. It is also not known whether officials conducted soil studies before construction began, or whether those studies were ignored. The government has not made public blueprints, soil studies or inspection records. Francisco “Farruco” Sesto, who headed the office responsible for then-President Hugo Chávez’s housing program, did not respond to an interview request from AP.

— The government of acting President Delcy Rodríguez has not provided any information regarding on-site forensic analyses that experts say are crucial to determine the causes and responsibilities, but its cleanup work, including dynamiting damaged buildings, is underway and so is a rebuilding effort. Experts said they hope the government does not simply repeat the mistakes of 15 years ago and instead takes a careful and considered approach to its rebuilding efforts. They also said the cost of additional design and construction work needed to build high-rises capable of resisting earthquakes in the region will likely dissuade the state and some private investors from developing certain areas.

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Burke reported from San Francisco. Associated Press writers Michael Biesecker in Pittsburgh and Ryan Manzuk and Marshall Ritzel in New York contributed to this report.

With Republicans struggling to overcome President Donald Trump's low standing, Democrats are on the offensive in Republican strongholds like Texas and Florida, and even eyeing contests in deeper-red Kansas and Mississippi. Many Democratic leaders predict that the House majority is all but theirs, and that the Senate majority, almost unthinkable a year ago, is nearly in their grasp as well.

In the midst of such confidence, however, Democrats are ignoring glaring vulnerabilities that threaten to undermine the unstoppable blue wave they say is coming.

Look no further than swing-state New Hampshire, where Democratic leaders are sounding the alarm about political challenges that could jeopardize Rep. Chris Pappas' campaign for an open Senate seat and undermine the party's ability to win races around the country.

Democrats point to Republicans' overwhelming financial advantage that is allowing them to dominate the airwaves in the closing days of the campaign. At the same time, the Democrats' brand remains deeply unpopular, and they have virtually no margin for error in midterm races that are playing out largely in Republican-leaning states.

New Hampshire Democratic Chairman Ray Buckley says that national Democratic leaders “have consistently been overly optimistic” as they look to expand the midterm map. He's particularly worried about his state's Senate contest, where Republicans are investing far more resources than Democrats.

“There is reason for concern,” Buckley said. “We don’t want to let this one slip away because they were sending resources to some other unicorns — some other state that’s just not possible.”

Despite such warnings, there is little sign of concern among senior Democratic officials, who point to Trump's poor standing with voters who are frustrated by the war with Iran and surging costs with Republicans in control of Washington.

“It’s nothing we’re doing. We’re winning because they’re losing," said Democratic pollster John Anzalone. “And they’re losing dramatically with every action the president has taken.”

There is almost no state where Democrats cannot compete in November, he said: “America is the battleground state.”

Democrats are short on cash and goodwill

For all the Democrats' confidence, the party's brand remains deeply unpopular and fundraising is lagging.

More than half of voters, 55%, have a “strongly” or “somewhat” unfavorable view of the Democrats, according to a Fox News poll from September. A similar share, 58%, say the same about the Republican Party, while about 6 in 10 voters have a negative view of Trump (62%).

At the same time, about half of registered voters say the Democratic Party is “too far to the left,” according to a recent New York Times/Siena poll.

As the election approaches, few Democratic leaders acknowledge there is a problem.

In an interview, Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., pointed the finger at Republicans when asked about issues with the Democratic brand.

“We’ve made a much better case than them, and that’s why it looks like we’re going to win a bunch of House seats and probably win back the Senate,” Kelly said. “Right now, I think the Republican brand is the one that’s damaged.”

And yet Democrats are struggling to keep up with Republican fundraising.

Flush with campaign cash, Republicans are dominating the airwaves over the final weeks of the campaign. There isn’t a single state that features a top-tier Senate contest in which Democrats are spending more than Republicans.

Nationwide, Republicans are spending $1.63 billion on campaign advertising between Sept. 1 and Election Day compared to $1.19 billion for Democrats, according to data compiled by AdImpact as of Monday. The Republican advantage, nearly 40% nationwide, is actually larger in some key states.

In Texas, for example, which features competitive races for the Senate, House and governor, Republicans are spending $262.4 million statewide between Sept. 1 and Election Day compared to $76.9 million for Democrats, AdImpact found. In Ohio, which also hosts pivotal elections for Senate and governor, Republicans are outspending Democrats $258.8 million to $160.4 million. And in Florida, which features competitive races for governor and the House, Republicans are spending $99.3 million against the Democrats’ $47.9 million.

The Republican advantage isn’t as egregious in New Hampshire as some other states, but it is significant. AdImpact finds that Republicans are outspending Democrats in New Hampshire $41.2 million to $35.4 million statewide.

Pappas, the Democrat in the New Hampshire Senate race, acknowledged the Republican spending advantage and warned that his state must remain a priority for his national party.

“The majority won’t be flipped if we don’t hold this seat in New Hampshire, so it’s really critical to the overall map,” he said during a campaign stop.

Democrats

face ‘an identity crisis’

Pappas met on Tuesday with small business owners, including Amber Morgan, who owns Fortin Gage Flowers in Nashua. She said the uncertainty created by the Trump administration’s tariffs have been hard for her business.

But Morgan, a Democrat, is not surprised that New Hampshire's Senate race is close, given that Republicans are running the well-known former Sen. John E. Sununu. She said the Democratic Party has its faults as well.

“I think that the message for so long has just been, ‘We’re not Trump,’ and we’ve had a bit of an identity crisis in terms of what we actually stand for," Morgan said.

She is not alone.

Nationwide, the NYT/Siena poll found that about 6 in 10 registered voters who identify as Democrats say their party is divided, while only about 4 in 10 Republicans (37%) say the same about the GOP. Roughly 6 in 10 Republicans (61%) describe their party as united, compared to about 4 in 10 Democrats (40%).

But money remains the Democrats' dominant concern as the Republican spending advantage grows.

Steve Marchand, a Democratic consultant and former New Hampshire gubernatorial candidate, said Sununu has benefited from national money that got redirected from other states that are no longer seen as top targets, while Democrats were slower to invest.

“Democrats, including Pappas, became increasingly frustrated that national Democrats treated it like a fait accompli, like ‘you guys have it up there, we’re going to other states,'" Marchand said. "And a lot of us Democrats were saying, ’Hey, Sununu is going to be formidable, and New Hampshire is not a right-down-the-ticket kind of state.'”

Fred Osterholtz, a sales engineer at one of the businesses Pappas visited, said he’s worried about the huge amounts of money being poured into the race on Sununu’s behalf as well. But he was impressed with Pappas' focus.

“I think he’s starting to find some of the messages that will resonate," Osterholtz said. "I didn’t feel that way six months ago, but with the world stage the way it is — the costs, the inflation — they’re latching onto the right things I think.”

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Peoples reported from New York and Sloan reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Linley Sanders in Washington contributed.

Brown arrived in a Miami courtroom Wednesday morning and was ready to plead no contest to aggravated assault and be sentenced to probation, his lawyer said. But a Florida judge said she was in the middle of another trial and not ready to go forward. The hearing was pushed back to Oct. 28.

Brown is accused of grabbing a handgun from a security staffer after a celebrity boxing match in Miami on May 16, 2025, and firing two shots at a man he had been in a fistfight with earlier, according to an arrest warrant. Zul-Qarnain Kwame Nantambu told investigators one of the bullets grazed his neck.

Defense attorney Mark Eiglarsh said Brown was looking forward to putting the case behind him. Eiglarsh said the plea deal offered by prosecutors was too good to turn down and that it says Brown would not be considered a convicted felon.

“It’s a setback because it’s another month that my client has an ankle monitor on and doesn’t have closure, which everybody in this case wants,” Eiglarsh said. He said he was “cautiously optimistic” the judge would agree to the terms.

Brown could face up to 30 years in prison if convicted of the original attempted murder charge. He has said on social media that he was defending himself from an attack and others were trying to steal jewelry from him.

Florida’s Stand Your Ground law allows people who believe they face death or serious injury to use deadly force to defend themselves without a duty to retreat.

Nantambu said after Wednesday’s postponement that he hopes Brown will take advantage of the deal to “become a better person and be there for his family.”

“We want him to get the healing that he needs,” he said.

Richard Cooper, an attorney for Nantambu, said Nantambu forgave Brown and would not cooperate with law enforcement.

At one point in the court’s hallway, Brown slipped on a dark mask while talking to his attorney and then pulled it off before going into the hearing.

Brown, 38, spent 12 years in the NFL and was an All-Pro wide receiver who last played in the 2021-22 season for Tampa Bay and won a Super Bowl with quarterback Tom Brady the previous season.

Over the course of his career, much of it spent with Pittsburgh, he had 928 receptions for more than 12,000 yards and accounted for 88 total touchdowns, including punt returns and one pass.

During a January 2022 game with Tampa Bay against the New York Jets, Brown took off his jersey, shoulder pads and gloves and ran off the field, leading to his release by the Buccaneers and effectively ending his career.

Brown has dealt with several legal problems over the years. He previously was accused of battery of a moving truck driver, several domestic violence charges, failure to pay child support and other incidents.

Brown was extradited in November 2025 from Dubai, where he has business interests, after an arrest warrant on the attempted murder charge was issued in June of the same year.

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This story has been corrected to show Brown’s last game against the Jets was in 2022, not 2021.

Pike, now 50, and her boyfriend were convicted of the 1995 stabbing and beating of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, their classmate at a job training facility in Knoxville. She would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in at least 200 years.

The 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals halted the execution on a 2-1 vote after execution witnesses and others gathered at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.

Tennessee’s attorney general immediately appealed the stay to the U.S. Supreme Court. Witnesses and media remained at the prison in case the high court allows the execution to proceed. Media witnesses were brought into the prison about 10:15 a.m. to wait, but then were let back out into a parking lot after about 90 minutes.

More than 30 people, some wearing shirts that said “Love Heals,” gathered in a fenced-in area outside the prison while police on horses watched nearby.

The case garnered widespread attention at the time of the killing in part because a pentagram that was carved on Slemmer’s body and other elements of the crime stoked fears of Satan worship during the “satanic panic” of the 1980s and 1990s.

Pike's case renewed debate on the death penalty for teens

As the execution date drew near, it renewed debate over the death penalty for young offenders.

Pike does not deny committing the killing, but her supporters argue the state should consider Pike’s age at the time, mental illness and a history of severe sexual abuse that included being raped from the time she was a toddler. Assistant Federal Defender Stephen Ferrell said Pike’s death sentence is an outlier because other 18-year-olds in Tennessee have had such sentences vacated.

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

“I was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid. It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I’d done. Even more to accept how many lives I affected. I took the life of someone’s child, sister, friend. It sickens me now to think I had the ability to commit such a crime,” Pike said in a statement.

Victim's mother says she is waiting for death sentence

Slemmer’s mother wants the lethal injection to go forward, saying she has waited decades to see Pike’s sentence carried out.

“Every time I think about it, I think about Colleen feeling that pain and trying to get up and run,” May Martinez told The Associated Press in a telephone interview on Saturday.

Martinez said a group helped raise money so she and her husband could travel from Florida to witness the execution. She didn't respond to a message Wednesday after the execution was halted.

Martinez said her daughter's age should matter too in deciding Pike's fate.

“Not a day goes by, or a minute goes by that I do not think about Colleen. Holidays are the worst,” she said, noting that her daughter would have turned 51 earlier in September.

The killing rocked the city of Knoxville. Prosecutors said Pike, fearing Slemmer was trying to steal her boyfriend, lured her to a wooded area on Jan. 12, 1995. Pike cut Slemmer with a box cutter and beat her with a large chunk of asphalt. Shipp, Pike’s boyfriend, has admitted that he was the one who carved a pentagram, a star-shaped symbol associated with Satan, into her body.

Shipp was 17 when the crime happened and received a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole. Pike was the only one sentenced to death.

Executions of women are rare in the US

Tennessee has not executed a woman for at least 200 years, according to Robin M. Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. Older records can be spotty, though, so it’s difficult to know precise details about the last woman who was put to death there.

It's a rarity across the U.S. Since 1976, 18 women have been put to death in the country, representing about 1% of all executions, according to the center.

Most recently, Missouri in 2023 executed Amber McLaughlin for a 2003 killing, in what is believed to be the first execution of a transgender woman in the U.S. In 2021, the federal government executed Lisa Montgomery, marking the first time in nearly seven decades that the U.S. government put a female inmate to death.

Pike would be the 30th person executed in the U.S. this year. Florida carried out its 16th execution of 2026 on Tuesday.

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Associated Press journalists Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, and Ed White in Detroit contributed to this report.

The recipients of the international award are a Pakistani lawyer, an Ethiopian-born AI researcher, a Georgian legal rights group and a network of women farmers across Southern Africa.

The annual prize was created in 1980 by Swedish-German philanthropist Jakob von Uexkull, who wanted to honor work that contributes to a more just and peaceful world. It is traditionally announced shortly before the Nobel Prizes, which will be announced starting next Monday.

Right Livelihood said this year's recipients were being awarded for their “resistance to systems that push people to the margins, and a shared insistence on putting people back at the center.” They were chosen from 200 nominations from 72 countries.

“A system built to serve the few was never going to hold. This year, we honor women who refused to wait for permission,” Ole von Uexkull, the nephew of the prize founder and the organization’s executive director, said. “They are rewriting the rules that autocrats, patriarchs and Silicon Valley’s most powerful men assumed were theirs to write alone.”

“With the 2026 laureates we honor four shining examples of building power on cooperation, not on violence, so that everyone’s rights are respected and every voice is heard,” von Uexkull said as he presented the awards to the recipients. “We believe that this kind of collective power is the key to averting global crises, that a few ultra rich people profit from, while everybody else stands to lose.”

Here is a look at the recipients:

A Pakistani lawyer who works to protect vulnerable communities

Jalila Haider, a human rights lawyer who defends some of Pakistan’s most vulnerable communities from state repression, discrimination against women and ethnic violence, was awarded the prize “for breaking barriers, as the first female lawyer from her Hazara community, to challenge ethnic, state and patriarchal persecution, guided by the conviction that no human being is illegal.”

By combining legal work with efforts to help communities advocate for themselves, “Haider has secured justice for thousands targeted or ignored by those in power, specifically ethnic, gender and religious minorities, as well as refugees,” the organization said. Haider's law firm has also helped more than 600 political activists and human rights defenders regain the right to travel freely.

A Southern African women farmers’ group defending land rights

Also awarded was the Rural Women’s Assembly “for organizing rural women across Southern Africa into a united force defending land, seed and bodily autonomy against corporate and patriarchal dispossession.”

The Rural Women’s Assembly is a self-organized, movement of more than 178,000 small-scale farmers across 11 Southern African nations. It has established 24 sites where farmers reproduce and preserve seeds for future planting and documented hundreds of local seed varieties, helping protect the practice of saving and exchanging traditional seeds, the Swedish foundation said.

A Georgian human rights group working to safeguard democracy

The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association won the prize “for building and safeguarding Georgian democracy and sustaining civic power in the face of an autocratic crackdown.”

The group was founded in 1994 by volunteer lawyers who helped draft the country’s first postindependence constitution.

According to Right Livelihood, it has secured major legal victories that reshaped national policy, including protections for people with disabilities, free education for all children and compensation for victims of Soviet-era repression.

A researcher who exposes harms that AI is already causing

Right Livelihood also honored AI researcher Timnit Gebru “for challenging concentrated power in artificial intelligence and pioneering digital technology rooted in justice, lived experience and human agency.”

Gebru, who was born in Ethiopia to a family of Eritrean origin, is the founder of the Distributed AI Research Institute.

Right Livelihood said her work challenges the control that a small number of powerful companies exercise over AI and exposes harms that AI systems are already causing, particularly to communities facing discrimination and exclusion.

With the Red Sox trailing after losing the opener of the best-of-three Wild Card Series against the Yankees 9-0, Gray will face a fan base on Wednesday night that gave him the Bronx brush-off in 2017 and 2018.

“There’s a lot of people and a lot of players that can have one bump in the road and not get back on the tracks,” he said Tuesday. “And for me, there’s been bumps along the way and that may have been a little bit of a bigger bump than others.”

Approaching his 37th birthday, Gray tied for the major league lead with 18 wins this year along with a 2.72 ERA, his best in a full season. He took a no-hit bid into the eighth inning against the Yankees at Fenway Park in June as the Red Sox completed a four-game sweep that sparked their turnaround from a 32-46 start to an 87-75 record and a playoff berth.

Gray has pitched at Yankee Stadium twice since leaving the team and done well both times. Most recently, he pitched three-run ball over 6 1/3 innings in Boston’s 5-3 win in the Bronx on June 5.

“He’s had a great career, and someone who I was never super comfortable facing,” Red Sox teammate Trevor Story said. “He’s a pitcher to its finest degree.”

Gray reached a nadir in New York before rebounding. He's been an All-Star twice since and has 143 wins over 14 seasons.

“Anytime he’s out there, we feel good about it," Red Sox manager Chad Tracy said. “But having him out there tomorrow, obviously the season’s on the line for us, and he can handle that.”

He was 15-16 with a 4.52 ERA for the Yankees, who acquired him from Oakland in July 2017. He notoriously was dropped from the rotation in August 2018 after he smirked when fans booed as he walked off the Yankee Stadium mound in the third inning of a 7-5 loss to Baltimore.

Gray had a 6.98 ERA at Yankee Stadium in 2018 and a 3.17 ERA on the road.

“It’s kind of like one of those things that you have a snowball or whatever, right?” Gray said. “There’s a snowball that kind of starts rolling down a hill. If you don’t ever stop it, then the snowball just gets bigger and bigger and bigger, and it picks up traction and it just gets more snow. And it just continues to go down this thing. And then the bigger the snowball gets, the harder it is to stop it or take a step back.

"And for me, it just took me to get away and get myself into a different environment and then reflect on those things.”

Pitching for Cincinnati (2019-21), Minnesota (2022-23) and St. Louis (2024-25) revived his career. Then he was traded to the Red Sox last November, putting him in position to pitch for the Yankees' biggest rival.

"New York was, it just wasn’t a good situation for me, wasn’t a great setup for me and my family,” he said during a December Zoom news conference. “I never wanted to go there in the first place.”

Now he'll be back, trying to outpitch the Yankees' Max Fried and extend the first-round series to a decisive third game.

“I do know that playing here made me a stronger person, made me a better man, a better husband," he said. “Ultimately, it made me a better pitcher, a better baseball player.”

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Cam Schlittler pitched another playoff gem against the Red Sox, and Ben Rice also burned their hometown team with a late grand slam and six RBIs as the New York Yankees opened this Wild Card Series rematch by romping to a 9-0 victory Tuesday night.

With the Yankees minus star slugger Aaron Judge because of a calf injury, Rice homered twice, doubled and had four hits to power the offense. Schlittler, a clear frontrunner for the AL Cy Young Award, struck out 10 in a dominant performance reminiscent of the one that ended Boston's season last year.

Rice and Schlittler were both raised among Red Sox fans in Massachusetts and went to college in New England before getting plucked by the Yankees out of Boston's backyard in baseball's amateur draft.

“Pretty remarkable,” New York manager Aaron Boone said. “Obviously that’s been a storyline for a couple of years now. For them to go out and have that kind of night together to start this postseason, pretty amazing and kind of hard to grasp a little bit, frankly, but I’m certainly glad we have those two.”

Rice was actually a Yankees fan while growing up outside Boston.

“Wearing the Yankees jersey to the first-grade picture day probably got some weird looks,” he said.

“Definitely adds, like, a cool little layer to it, and for Cam, too. It’s always fun playing against them. And having a solid game against them is pretty cool.”

No. 9 batter Austin Wells drove in two runs and 21-year-old rookie George Lombard Jr. had three hits for New York in his postseason debut.

Schlittler, who led the American League with a 1.95 ERA, allowed only two singles and one walk in 6 1/3 innings without letting a runner reach second base. He threw 117 pitches — 10 more than his previous career high and most by a Yankees postseason starter since Hall of Fame lefty CC Sabathia threw 121 in the 2012 AL Division Series against Baltimore.

“I got a little greedy,” Boone said.

The major league high this season was 120 by Dylan Cease for Toronto at Boston in July.

The 25-year-old Schlittler retired 13 straight batters before a two-out walk in the fifth, bringing several chants of “MVP! MVP!” from the sellout crowd of 48,437 in the Bronx. He walked off the mound to a standing ovation after yielding a one-out single in the seventh, and Paul Blackburn promptly got Ceddanne Rafaela to ground into an inning-ending double play that preserved a 2-0 lead.

New York outhit Boston 12-3 in the fifth postseason shutout since 2002 for the Yankees, who led the majors in ERA this year for the first time since 1957.

Game 2 in the best-of-three series at Yankee Stadium is Wednesday night, when a victory would send New York into a best-of-five Division Series against AL East champion Tampa Bay.

Going into this postseason, Game 1 winners had advanced 15 times in the 16 best-of-three Wild Card Series since the format was implemented in 2022. The only exception was the Red Sox last year.

Boston and New York have split six previous postseason matchups. The Yankees took last year’s Wild Card Series between the longtime rivals on the strength of Schlittler’s dominant performance in Game 3, when the rookie struck out 12 over eight innings in a 4-0 win.

Schlittler has said he received on-line abuse before some of his outings against Boston. He’s used it as motivation.

The right-hander is 4-1 with a 0.47 ERA and 49 strikeouts in six career starts against the Red Sox — including the playoffs.

“It's very well known that if you want to be a legend, which is obviously the goal, you’ve got to do it in the postseason,” Schlittler said.

Rice gave the Yankees a 2-0 lead with a 423-foot solo homer into Monument Park in straightaway center field on the third pitch from left-handed reliever Erik Miller, who replaced Payton Tolle with two outs in the fifth after the rookie starter threw 83 pitches.

The 27-year-old Rice added a run-scoring single with the bases loaded in the seventh and a grand slam to right-center that capped a five-run eighth.

The 16th slam in Yankees postseason history gave Rice six RBIs, matching the franchise record for a postseason game accomplished by four other players.

Rice also homered in Game 2 of last year's Wild Card Series. He led New York with 41 homers, 97 RBIs and an .897 OPS this year in his third major league season.

“I’ll remember getting a W versus the Red Sox. There’s nothing better than that,” Rice said. “I’ll remember Cam going out there and just being lights out, like he always is. I’ll remember the atmosphere. It was just an awesome night. Great way to kick off the series.”

Up next

Red Sox RHP Sonny Gray (18-5, 2.72 ERA) faces one of his former teams Wednesday night when he makes his seventh postseason start and first since 2023 with Minnesota.

LHP Max Fried (5-5, 2.80 ERA) pitches for New York. The three-time All-Star was limited to 20 starts this season because of two stints on the injured list with a bruised left elbow. He threw 6 1/3 scoreless innings in the Wild Card Series opener last year.

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

The better-than-expected data helped shorter-term Treasury yields slow their pressure-cranking jumps, a day after the 10-year Treasury yield touched its highest level since 2002. That in turn helped support U.S. stock indexes.

The S&P 500 rose 0.5% and is close to finishing September with a small gain instead of a loss. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 45 points, or 0.1%, as of 12:29 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1% higher.

Easier Treasury yields help the broad stock market because higher yields slow the overall economy by making borrowing money more expensive for everyone, while undercutting prices for all kinds of investments.

Shorter-term yields eased as traders pared bets that the Federal Reserve will raise its main interest rate next month to get inflation further under control. They now see just a 39% chance of that, down from the coin flip's chance seen a day earlier, according to data from CME Group. That helped the yield on the two-year Treasury fall to 4.88% from 4.89% late Tuesday.

The morning’s report said that U.S. consumers had to pay prices that were 3.4% higher overall in August for the cost of living than a year earlier. That was not as bad as the 3.7% that economists expected, even if it remained worse than the Fed’s 2% target.

The report followed others from earlier in the month about inflation during August, but this is the one that the Federal Reserve prefers to use.

To be sure, worries about high inflation are just one of the reasons yields have jumped in the United States and around the world. The seemingly solid U.S. economy, which continues to chug along despite its many challenges, is also supporting yields, and a report on Wednesday said its growth was even stronger during the spring than earlier estimated.

A separate report, meanwhile, said growth in business activity in the Midwest was better than economists expected.

Other factors sending yields higher are also continuing to churn, including worries about the big debt loads that Washington and other governments worldwide are supporting.

That sent longer-term Treasury yields higher. The 10-year Treasury, which is the centerpiece of the bond market, saw its yield briefly drop as low as 5.20% before rising to 5.29%. That's up from 5.26% late Tuesday.

The 30-year Treasury yield, which takes into account expectations for inflation and economic growth many years down the line, rose to 5.63% from 5.59% late Tuesday.

The bond market also felt upward pressure from another climb for oil prices, which have been swinging on uncertainty about when the war with Iran will allow the flow of crude to be fully restored. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 2.9% to $98.99 per barrel.

On Wall Street, Hewlett Packard Enterprise helped drive the market higher after rising 6.1%. It increased its forecast for revenue from its networking business, which is benefiting from the boom in artificial-intelligence technology.

Another AI winner, Nvidia, was one of the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500 after adding 1.4%. It has come under pressure, along with the broad industry, on worries that its stock price shot too high. High interest rates pack a particularly hard punch on stocks seen as the most expensive.

Nvidia also benefits from lower yields because they make it cheaper for customers to borrow money to build AI data centers.

MongoDB climbed 6.1% after saying its board boosted the database company's program to send cash to shareholders through buybacks of its own stock by $1 billion. That helped MongoDB recover some of its sharp loss from earlier in the week, after it said Chirantan “CJ” Desai was stepping down as CEO for a senior role at Meta Platforms.

Such gains helped offset a 3.3% drop for Cal-Maine Foods after the country's largest egg company reported a larger loss for the latest quarter than analysts expected. With plenty of eggs available in the market, Cal-Maine Foods saw a sharp drop in prices it could charge, compared with a year earlier.

In stock markets abroad, indexes dipped in Europe following a mixed finish in Asia. Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 1.9%, while France’s CAC 40 fell 0.9% for two of the world’s bigger moves.

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AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Michelle Chapman contributed to this report.

The two-way superstar played in the final five games of the regular season after coming off a two-week stint on the injured list with nagging right biceps and left knee issues.

With five days off leading up to Game 1 of the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium on Saturday, Ohtani has time to rest and refine his hitting stroke.

He went 5 for 21 with an extra-base hit, eight strikeouts and a walk over the final five games.

“Everything is feeling great physically,” general manager Brandon Gomes said Tuesday. "The swings, once he came back, overall were in a good place, and using these five days to continue to get reps and feeling good into this series is really important. But feels like he’s in a great spot.”

Ohtani hit .275 with an .889 OPS and a team-high 30 home runs in the regular season despite injuries that curtailed his pitching and a slump at the plate that knocked him out of contention for a fifth MVP award.

During his offensive skid, Ohtani batted .198 with 34 strikeouts in 24 games before going on the IL.

"I feel confident that you’re going to see the best version of Shohei of the last two months,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I know that’s sort of a low bar given his injury, but I do think that he’s as healthy as he’s been in quite some time. Every day from the training staff, it keeps getting better. So yeah, number one, he’ll be a threat being in the lineup, but I do think that the performance piece will be what we’re hoping for.”

Roberts wants to see Ohtani take a handful of live at-bats and hit off the Trajekt machine this week.

“He did everything he could to manage it, all the while being somewhat compromised,” the manager said. "I think that he’s going to be as healthy and feel as good as he’s felt.”

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Jonquel Jones had 21 points and 13 rebounds and the No. 8 seed Liberty beat the top-seeded Lynx 87-71 in Game 2 of their WNBA playoff series Tuesday night. New York became the first No. 8 seed to eliminate a No. 1 seed in the league’s 30-year history.

The WNBA has undergone a number of different playoff formats. And in many of the formats, it wasn’t possible for those seeds to match up. However, in 2022 the league changed to the current format in which the top eight teams play in the quarterfinals.

“It feels good, we understand who we are as a team,” Jones said. “We're not listening to outside noise, we understand that we can do a lot of great things. We feel like we can play with anybody and beat anybody. That’s the mindset we have moving forward. It feels good to make history. It had to be done for us to advance. It’s nice to say it’s been accomplished, but we have a lot of work to do."

Breanna Stewart added 21 points and Sabrina Ionescu had 18 for the Liberty, who await the winner of the Atlanta-Washington series. The Dream are up 1-0 and play at Washington on Wednesday night. The semifinals begin Sunday.

A year after losing in the first round to Phoenix after going up 1-0 in that series, New York was determined not to have that happen again.

The Liberty were up five points after one quarter and led 40-35 with 2:39 left in the half. New York scored nine of the final 11 points in the second quarter to go up 49-37 at the break.

New York was up 52-39 with 6:26 left in the third when Stewart drove to the basket and was hit in the face by Olivia Miles as she tried to block the shot. Stewart was down for a minute as the officials reviewed the play and upgraded the play to a Flagrant-1 foul.

As Stewart walked off the court, she raised her hands to the sellout crowd of 17,593, who serenaded her with M-V-P! chants. Stewart hit both free throws.

Minnesota couldn't get closer than seven points the rest of the way.

“New York is a great basketball team,” said Courtney Williams, who led Minnesota with 18 points. “You dig a hole for yourself and try to get out of it. We wanted to go on a run, but they had answers for everything.”

The Lynx's season ended in disappointment again. The Lynx had the best regular-season record, but just couldn't put it together against New York. On Monday, Cheryl Reeve won the league's Coach of the Year and Miles was a unanimous choice for Rookie of the Year.

Miles struggled in both games against New York. She had five points, missing seven of her eight shots in 17 minutes, on Tuesday night. The Liberty's size and ability to protect the rim bothered the stellar first-year player.

Reeve said she offered encouragement to her star rookie after the game.

“As I told her. When was the last time a rookie led the first place team? Never happened before,” Reeve said. “That's what we shared with her. This hurts for her.”

Napheesa Collier and Kayla McBride each added 14 to for the Lynx.

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See AP’s full WNBA coverage here

Typically, goods and items seized by the government are destroyed or sold at auction. In this case, CBP officers had a different idea: donation.

Local 10 was given rare access to see the shipment as well as one of the undisclosed warehouses in South Florida where confiscated items are stored.

“What the public rarely sees is what happens after we make a seizure,” said Miami Director of Field Operations Daniel Alonso.

According to CBP, it’s believed the importers used fake labels to conceal where the shipment was from, and what it contained, to try to evade duties placed on Chinese goods.

“When items like this are mislabeled, they’re trying to get them into the country at a lower rate, which causes a substantial loss of revenue to the United States,” Port Director Robert Del Toro said. “So you do that - items do get seized.”

Del Toro said the pre-constructed cabinets underwent a thorough inspection for safety before CBP collaborated with non-profit World Vision.

Palates of cabinets, still in boxes, will be distributed to communities in need in Central America and Africa. Because the boxes were initially mislabeled, some legal restrictions prevent them from staying in the U.S.

“What we see is cabinets,” said Jack Laverty, Corporate Engagement Director at World Vision. “What they see is hope.”

Palates were moved out of the government warehouse last week.

“It’s adding cabinets either to their home, to schools, to clinics - to facilities that are serving vulnerable populations,” Laverty said.

The investigation into the importer of the cabinets, and whether they may face penalties, continues.

La iniciativa, impulsada por el presidente Nayib Bukele, fue aprobada con el voto de 57 de los 60 diputados del Congreso unicameral, controlado por el partido Nuevas Ideas del mandatario y sus aliados. Los tres diputados de oposición no votaron.

La nueva ley especial transitoria autoriza al presidente Bukele a realizar los “arreglos que sean necesarios” para que el personal salvadoreño “no sea entregado o transferido a ningún tribunal internacional, entidad o Estado para ser juzgado sin perjuicio del cumplimiento de los tratados internacionales ratificados por el país”.

En octubre de 2024, El Salvador aprobó enviar un contingente militar a Haití para participar en operaciones de evacuaciones médicas como parte de la Misión Multinacional de Apoyo a la Seguridad, liderada por Kenia.

La Fuerza de Supresión de Pandillas (GSF, por sus siglas en inglés) fue aprobada el 30 de septiembre de 2025 por el Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU con el objetivo de realizar operaciones para desmantelar bandas armadas y sustituir la misión de apoyo a la seguridad liderada por Kenia, autorizada en octubre de 2023 y limitada de recursos.

La ley de participación en la GSF explica que informó al gobierno de Estados Unidos que la Fuerza Armada de “El Salvador está en condiciones de apoyar la referida misión con ayuda militar y equipamiento de defensa".

Fifty years after Stallone pulled off one of Hollywood’s all-time long shots with “Rocky,” the Oscar-nominated star still identifies with the character who for many embodies the outsider proving all the naysayers wrong.

Now, turning 80, the Hollywood icon is stripping away the action-hero armor to tell the raw, unfiltered story of how he survived the ultimate underdog fight; his own life.

Local 10’s Jason Carter has the full story, and it can be seen at the top of this page.

She was her godmother, and they talked about everything.

“I spoke to my aunt almost every day,” said Gonzalez.

But those phone calls stopped On June 19, when Liontos and her husband Roger Gonzalez were murdered at their home in southwest Miami-Dade County.

Both were found shot on their property.

Ashley Gonzalez and her family could not wrap their minds around who would hurt the couple.

Last week, U.S. Marshals arrested 73-year-old Andres Gonzalez in Puerto Rico, someone the family knew.

“He was their neighbor for a long time,” said Ashley Gonzalez. “So when they said his name, my heart dropped because I was so shocked.”

According to an arrest warrant, the suspect purchased a one-way flight the day before the murders and boarded a flight on June 19.

The arrest of the longtime family friend now accused two murders stunned loved ones.

“I can’t get why, what went through his mind?” said Ashley Gonzalez. “What why did he go there and just do that to them?”

A motive has not been officially released by investigators, but the arrest warrant points to money, saying he, “Sold equipment and plants to the victims for $14,000 dollars” and “still owed $2,000 and they stopped making payments.”

“Yeah, not getting the two grand back, yeah, now he’s gonna go to jail for the rest of his life,” said Ashley Gonzalez.

The suspect is being held without bond on two first degree murder charges.

For Ashley Gonzalez, she wants people to know how much her aunt and uncle were loved and will always be missed. She says the only thing she wants is her aunt’s phones and fanny pack; those were the only things that went missing from the home.

Their mother, Nathalie Belizaire, had left aboard the Carnival Conquest on a 3-day voyage from Miami to the Bahamas on Friday, according to police.

North Miami Beach Chief Juan Pinillos said the children were alone for at least 48 hours.

“Anyone who has children knows a two-month-old needs tons of attention,” Pinillos said.

Police officers reported forcing their way into the apartment in the area of Northeast 15th Avenue and 170th Street and finding the four kids “hiding” in the bathroom.

“We are just grateful nothing worse happened to those kids,” Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Mindy Glazer said in court on Tuesday morning.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputies, and North Miami Beach police officers were waiting when Belizaire, 29, returned on Monday to PortMiami.

“They arrested her disembarking from the cruise ship,” Glazer said.

Miami-Dade corrections booked Belizaire at 1:25 p.m. on Monday at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, according to inmate records.

“Be responsible, leaving a baby alone, unattended, unsupervised is a serious crime,” Pinillos said.

On Tuesday, prosecutors filed a felony case against Belizaire. She faced four counts of child neglect without great bodily harm. Glazer issued four stay-away orders and set her bond at $10,000.

While leaving jail Tuesday evening, Belizaire denied the charges and claimed the children were supposed to be under the supervision of their father.

Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez was set to preside over the case.

Related stories

• Mother accused of leaving 4 young children, including infant, home alone to go on Carnival cruise
• Judge on North Miami Beach mother’s alleged crimes: ‘You cannot make this up’

Ream had previously told head coach Mauricio Pochettino that he would not retire from national team play, but says now that the evolution of the team and the game has changed things.

“The kids are getting younger and younger, and I don’t mean my own kids,” Ream said Tuesday before the Americans faced Chile in a friendly in his hometown. “It is retirement. We’ve used the word recognition. We weren’t really sure how we wanted to label it, but, yeah, that’s it for me. I’m proud of being a part of something for 16 years, but it is time to step away and stay away from play with the national team.”

The 38-year-old Ream has 86 caps since making his national team debut on Nov. 17, 2010, in a friendly against South Africa. Only DaMarcus Beasley has more caps than Ream’s 60 after turning 30 years old.

Ream has worn the captain’s armband for 26 matches, including four at the World Cup earlier this year.

“It’s an honor, there’s not really any other way to put it,” Ream said. “The biggest thing that I wanted to do as I started to get the captain’s armband more and more is, ’How can I help these guys become the next captain? How can I help this group continue to develop and be more special than they are.”

Ream says the future for the U.S. team is looking bright with a group of young talent, including 17-year-old Cavan Sullivan, that reminds him of when the current core of Gio Reyna, Tyler Adams and Weston McKinnie was emerging.

“The thing that stands out to me with them is the same thing that stood out when the Westons, the Tylers, the Gios, these guys stepped in to the national team,” Ream said. “They have a ridiculous amount of confidence, and it’s refreshing. It borderlines being cocky, but I think you have to have that little bit of swagger. You have to have that that belief in yourself. They’re still learning.”

Ream said he will continue to play for MLS’ Charlotte FC and has not made a decision on his future in the MLS.

___

See AP’s full soccer coverage here

On a night when the defenses and goaltenders had the edge, it was a blue-liner who provided the winning play to end a matchup of the last two teams to win the Cup.

The Panthers had their final chance with the game seemingly headed to a shootout as Carter Verhaeghe brought the puck into the zone with under 10 seconds left. But Verhaeghe sent the puck back toward Forsling, who fired a one-timer from near the blue line that zipped past Bussi’s glove side to end it.

That spoiled the end of a three-month celebration for the Hurricanes since beating Vegas in June to cap a 16-3 march to the franchise’s second Cup. The final piece was the players gathering at the blue line and tapping their sticks as a championship banner rose to the rafters.

That moment came against the Panthers, who reached the Stanley Cup Final for three straight years and won it all in 2024 and 2025. They had twice eliminated the Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Final in their run, though injuries derailed last year.

Getting captain Aleksander Barkov back from that lengthy injury list was one of several reasons to expect the Panthers to jump right back into contention, along with Panthers star Matthew Tkachuk welcoming brother Brady as an offseason addition. There was also the change by bringing in Jacob Markstrom to take over the crease anchored by Sergei Bobrovsky during those title runs.

And for much of this one, it was up to Markstrom and Bussi to hold up in net, including against multiple one-on-one quality chances and a combined 13 power plays in regulation.

Markstrom finished with 15 saves while Bussi — who posted a shutout in Carolina’s Cup-clinching win against Vegas — made 19 saves before giving up the last blast.

Up next

Panthers: Florida heads west to face the San Jose Sharks on Thursday.

Hurricanes: Carolina hosts the Washington Capitals on Friday night.

___

See AP’s full NHL coverage here

_______

Esta es una galería de fotos seleccionada por editores de fotografía de The Associated Press.

“I'm particularly grateful to the men and women of the Oakland Police Department ... for achieving substantial compliance,” San Francisco judge William Orrick said. “May it ever be thus.”

The police department made national news in 2000 after a rookie officer came forward to report abuse of power by a group of officers known as the Oakland “Riders.” The four officers were charged with making false arrests, planting evidence, using excessive force, falsifying police reports and assaulting people in west Oakland, a predominantly Black area. Three of the officers were acquitted after two separate juries deadlocked on most of the charges. The fourth officer is a fugitive and is believed to have fled the country.

The case resulted in the department coming under federal oversight in 2003 and being required to enact dozens of reform measures and report its progress to an outside monitor and a federal judge. That same year, the city of about 400,000 people settled a class-action police abuse lawsuit involving 119 people for $11 million.

The Oakland Police Department has had constant leadership turnover over the years. In 2023, police chief LeRonne Armstrong was fired after a probe found that he covered up officer misconduct. The current chief, James Beere, took office in July, making him the 16th head of the department over two decades of federal oversight.

The department’s federal monitor in May issued a report saying that the Oakland Police Department had complied with all 51 court-mandated reforms stemming from the 2000 police brutality and corruption case.

“This is the first time in 23 years that OPD has achieved each of the 51 tasks in the (settlement agreement.) No one can say, ‘mission accomplished.’ But I do congratulate the city and OPD for getting this far,” Orrick said during a hearing in May.

Some civil rights organizations had asked Orrick to delay releasing the department from federal oversight for at least a year after court-appointed monitor Robert S. Warshaw said in a progress report this month that he had found that the Oakland Police Department had again fallen below the threshold for timely investigations into severe misconduct violations.

But Orrick noted Tuesday it was important for the court to “get out of the way.”

While plaintiff attorneys at the hearing noted the department fell short of completing 85% of its serious misconduct investigations within 180 days, they did not oppose the ending of federal oversight.

Oakland Police Chief Beere acknowledged those cases to the judge, explaining that many were complex officer-involved shootings.

“We did slip a little bit,” said Beere, KTVU reported. “But we own our mistakes.”

The Oakland police union said the decision was an “important new beginning” for the department and reflects years of hard work by officers.

“The next chapter for the City and OPD must be about recruiting officers, rebuilding staffing levels and giving the men and women of OPD the resources they need to keep Oakland safe,” said Cesar Leyva, interim president of the Oakland Police Officers Association.

Civil rights attorney John Burris reflected at the hearing on the progress made over the past two decades and the importance of continuing that progress under the leadership of the city of Oakland.

“For me, it’s not today that’s important, it’s tomorrow … whether or not what’s been put in place here stands the test of time,” Burris said.

Some local groups urged the importance of strengthening civilian oversight of the police department through the Oakland Police Commission, established by voters in 2016.

“We need more independent oversight, more transparency, and more accountability, not less,” said Cat Brooks, executive director of the Anti Police-Terror Project.

The White Sox, in the postseason for the first time since 2021, made a remarkable turnaround this year to become the only team in major league history to follow consecutive 100-loss seasons with a playoff berth. They had lost 100 games three straight seasons, including 121 defeats in 2024, setting the record for most losses since 1899.

“We came here to win the series and the first part of that is getting this first win, which is great,” manager Will Venable said.

He added that he was impressed with the poise his young team showed.

“A bunch of young guys that haven’t been in this situation before, they didn’t back down at all,” he said. “So really good stuff to come out and have an early win.”

The White Sox got a letter of support from Pope Leo XIV, a Chicago native, prior to the game and got to work immediately to show off for the pontiff.

They led 3-0 after two innings and held on for their first playoff win since Oct. 10, 2021 in the ALDS against Houston.

The AL West-winning Astros eked out a playoff spot with an 81-81 record to become the first team to reach the postseason without a winning record. Houston lost its eighth straight home playoff game in its ninth trip to the postseason in the last 10 years.

Game 2 in the best-of-three series is Wednesday in Houston.

Manager Joe Espada is confident his team will respond Wednesday to force a Game 3.

“Our backs have been against the corner before and I think that’s when we are our best, when we fight back,” he said. “We know it’s a do or die and we’ve been here before, so I really admire how they bounce back and they react to challenges. I expect them to go out there and bounce back and our offense to get going.”

MVP-favorite Yordan Alvarez said they're ready for the challenge.

“Tomorrow we have to come out here and win or there’s no tomorrow after that,” he said in Spanish through a translator.

Houston had runners on first and third with two outs in the eighth after singles by Jeremy Peña and Alvarez when Jose Altuve reached and Peña scored on an error by third baseman Miguel Vargas to cut the lead to 6-3.

The Astros' tough day came in front of a surprisingly thin crowd. The announced attendance was 34,011 in a park with a capacity of 40,963. The home fans peppered the team with some boos when it fell behind early.

Both teams went with a bullpen game and combined to use 13 pitchers. Chicago opened with rookie left-hander Hagen Smith, and he allowed two hits in three scoreless innings.

“It was cool just to get the opportunity to go out there and do that,” he said. “And, yeah, just try to go out there and compete the best I can for the team and give us the best chance to win.”

Houston’s rookie opener AJ Blubaugh gave up two walks, and an error by Christian Walker left runners on first and third with one out in the first. The White Sox took an early lead on a sacrifice fly by Murakami.

Bryan King plunked Montgomery to load the bases with no outs in the second before Antonacci’s single pushed the lead to 3-0.

Espada said having to use two pitchers so early made piecing together the game difficult.

“It puts you in a tough spot for sure,” he said.

Montgomery, who Venable dropped to ninth in the order Tuesday, opened the fourth with a 432-foot homer to straightaway center field to make it 4-0. He hit 31 home runs in the regular season but also set the single-season record with 227 strikeouts.

Chicago made it 5-0 on a bases-loaded RBI single by Chase Meidroth with one out in the fifth.

Pinch-hitter Nelson Velázquez hit a two-run homer to cut the lead to 5-2 with two outs in the fifth.

The White Sox tacked on another run on a wild pitch by Bennett Sousa in the seventh.

Up next

Ace Hunter Brown (6-4, 3.19 ERA) will start Game 2 as the Astros try to avoid elimination against RHP Sean Burke (11-7, 3.34 ERA).

___

See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Justin Michael Wolfe ’s release on Monday marks the end of a complex legal saga that at one point had him just days away from an execution date for the 2001 murder of Daniel Petrole in Bristow, Virginia. Judge Carl Weimer vacated the conviction after the only witness tying Wolfe to the shooting recanted his testimony, and Wolfe agreed to a plea deal on marijuana and robbery charges for a sentence of time served.

Wolfe, 45, spent his first few hours of freedom in a whirlwind of normalcy: Eating pizza, running errands with his mom, planning a family dinner.

“The thing I relish most is getting to know my nieces and nephews,” he said Tuesday afternoon. “I did 25 years for a marijuana case, something that you can go buy at the store now. I feel like I handled it as well as I could.”

Wolfe was 19 when the case began

Wolfe's case drew widespread attention when it began in the early 2000s, exposing a then-shocking drug ring involving Wolfe and several other teens in northern Virginia. At the time, authorities said they estimated Wolfe and the others may have sold as much as $10 million worth of marijuana and the synthetic drug ecstasy before they were caught, using the money on high-dollar vacations to Hawaii and Atlantic City while maintaining a veneer of everyday suburban life.

Prosecutors said Wolfe hired another young marijuana dealer, Owen Barber, to shoot and kill Daniel Petrole on March 15, 2001. Petrole was Wolfe’s friend from high school as well as his drug supplier, and prosecutors said Wolfe owed Petrole more than $60,000.

After the shooting, Barber told a friend what he had done and the friend notified police, according to court records. Barber eventually pleaded guilty as part of a deal to avoid the death penalty, and was sentenced to 60 years for the murder.

Advocacy groups took up Wolfe's case

Meanwhile, a grand jury indicted Wolfe on charges including capital murder. Wolfe testified in his own defense and denied any involvement in Petrole’s death, but he was convicted in 2002 and sentenced to death.

The only person tying Wolfe to the murder-for-hire scheme was Barber. And Barber later recanted his trial testimony, saying Wolfe wasn’t involved in the murder and that law enforcement officers had repeatedly threatened him with the death penalty unless he cooperated with Wolfe’s prosecution.

Legal advocacy groups, including the U.S. Campaign to End the Death Penalty, the Innocence Project at the University of Virginia School of Law and others took up Wolfe's cause. But legal wins in the case were at times incremental, and each step took years.

Wolfe's death sentence was overturned, but he still faced decades in prison

After Wolfe appealed, a federal judge determined that prosecutors had engaged in misconduct and vacated his death sentence, ordering a new trial. But Barber refused to testify on Wolfe's behalf because he feared it would violate the plea deal he had reached in his own case, potentially subjecting Barber to a new death penalty trial.

More legal wrangling ensued, and in 2016 Wolfe was resentenced to up to 41 years in prison as part of a plea deal to avoid another death sentence. The deal also required him to apologize to Petrole's family.

“I understand all the pain and suffering I caused,” Wolfe said at his 2016 sentencing, looking directly at Petrole’s family. “I know an apology is not enough, but I’m sorry.”

Virginia abolished the death penalty in 2021. Barber, who was no longer at risk of facing capital punishment, signed a new sworn statement in 2023 vowing that Wolfe had nothing to do with Petrole's death. Two other people also provided sworn statements that Barber had told each of them that Wolfe wasn’t involved in Petrole’s death.

An appeals court criticized an overzealous prosecution

Last year, a panel of federal appellate judges agreed that Wolfe had been the victim of prosecutorial misconduct.

“Twenty-four years ago, the Commonwealth decided that appellant was a guilty man,” U.S. Circuit Judge Stephanie Thacker wrote for the unanimous three-judge panel. "From that moment, the Commonwealth has done everything in its power to ensure Appellant dies in prison, eschewing the Constitution, ethical strictures, and Appellant’s own repeated and consistent assertions of actual innocence.”

Wolfe's release this week came as part of a new plea deal in which he pleaded guilty to selling marijuana and entered a modified guilty plea known as an Alford plea to solicitation of robbery. An Alford plea essentially allows a defendant to plead guilty despite maintaining their innocence.

“The system is broken," his mom, Steinberg, said. “What they did to him was cruel and unusual punishment, and what they did to the Petroles was just prolong their pain.”

New prosecutors say the resolution is an ‘appropriate outcome’

In a statement released Monday, Prince William County Commonwealth's Attorney Amy Ashworth called the resolution a “just and appropriate outcome” to a case that was mishandled by a previous administration.

“We recognize that people will have strong and differing views about this resolution,” with some believing it establishes Wolfe's guilt and others his innocence, Ashworth said.

Petrole's family says they will always love and miss him

Petrole's family also issued a statement, included in the Prince William County Commonwealth Attorney's office release.

They asked for privacy and said they hope that now they “can finally begin to close this chapter and remember Danny for life rather than for the circumstances of his death.”

Wolfe is looking toward the future

Steinberg said she's looking forward to healing, as a family.

Wolfe is facing an adjustment period. Simple things like being able to choose when to sleep, and showering without a correctional officer escort are novel changes after a quarter-century behind bars. But he hopes to eventually become an advocate for criminal justice reform.

“We just went to Costco, and that was sensory overload,” Wolfe said with a chuckle. “I’m going to get the hang of it. I’ll be alright.”

___ Boone reported from Boise, Idaho.

The incident could further inflame tensions between the Koreas, which have no working military hotlines or other emergency communications channels as North Korea hardens its stance toward Seoul while expanding its military nuclear program.

Three South Korean soldiers were injured in two explosions on Sept. 21 near the military demarcation line in the western section of the Demilitarized Zone, a heavily fortified border buffer zone between the Koreas that's commonly known as the DMZ.

The statement by Kim Yo Jong came after South Korea’s military on Monday announced a preliminary assessment that the blasts were caused by North Korean mines following a joint inspection of the site with the U.S.-led United Nations Command.

UN Command says North Korea violated armistice agreement

The South Korean joint chiefs said South Korean and U.N. investigators discovered another North Korean mine Tuesday during a follow-up inspection. The U.N. Command said Wednesday that North Korea had violated the armistice agreement that ended fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War. The agreement prohibits both sides from committing any hostile act “within, from, or against” the DMZ and bans military or civilian personnel from crossing the military demarcation line without authorization from the armistice commission.

The U.N. Command said it was addressing the violation through established mechanisms but didn’t elaborate.

Kang Hyunwoo, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff’s director of operations, said the military “strongly urges” North Korea to apologize for the blasts and take “responsible measures” to prevent a recurrence. South Korean Defense Minister Kang Shin-chul said the South would consider unspecified “corresponding measures” if a complete investigation confirms the North was responsible.

Kim calls Seoul's claims a ‘farce’

Kim Yo Jong, who is considered possibly the second most powerful figure in Pyongyang, called the South Korean assessment a “conspiratorial farce,” accusing Seoul of making groundless claims to create a pretext for provocation against the North.

North Korea in recent years has added mines, anti-tank barriers and other front-line fortifications, raising concerns in the South about the growing presence of North Korean soldiers near the border. Kim criticized the South for broadcasting warnings and firing warning shots at North Korean troops conducting front-line fortification work, insisting “our soldiers have never crossed the border.”

“If the (South Korean) military gangsters fire at our soldiers carrying on the permanent project for the southern border, not warning shots, our border units will take immediate and merciless retaliatory action,” she said.

The recent explosions, which took place about 10 meters (yards) south of the military demarcation line, came during an operation to establish a patrol route through a densely vegetated area. The route was intended to allow future inspections with the U.N. Command after South Korea since last year detected “terrain changes” that may have resulted from North Korean minelaying.

The DMZ is a 248-kilometer (155-mile) strip and one of the world’s most heavily fortified borders, with an estimated 2 million land mines, barbed-wire fences, tank traps and combat troops on both sides.

In August 2015, another spate of land mine blasts that maimed two South Korean soldiers and sharply raised tensions between the Koreas.

The Koreas then traded threats, staged weapons demonstrations and resumed border propaganda broadcasts before days of marathon talks eventually pulled them back from the brink. North Korea issued a vague expression of regret over the soldiers’ injuries at the time but has never clearly accepted responsibility.

Martine Moise salió de la corte federal tras una jornada de testimonios en la que se mostraron fotografías explícitas del ataque del 7 de julio de 2021 en la residencia presidencial de Puerto Príncipe, la capital de Haití.

Según la Fiscalía, Sanon fue uno de los cabecillas de un complot orquestado y financiado en gran parte desde el sur de Florida para derrocar y matar a Jovenel Moise.

Hombres armados, en su mayoría exmilitares colombianos, irrumpieron en la casa de los Moise en la madrugada. Desde el estrado, Martine Moise recordó haber escuchado a los atacantes gritar en español.

Al jurado se le mostraron fotografías de la habitación de la pareja en completo desorden, con sangre esparcida por el piso. En una de las imágenes, tomada a distancia, se veía el cuerpo del presidente en el suelo junto a su cama.

Según los investigadores, Jovenel Moise recibió múltiples disparos y murió. Martine Moise recibió un disparo en el brazo. Los dos hijos de la pareja lograron esconderse durante el ataque y resultaron ilesos.

Entre lágrimas, Martine Moise recordó el momento en que vio a sus hijos después del ataque.

“Pensé que todo había terminado, que lo había perdido todo. Cuando vi a mis hijos, recuperé las fuerzas”, dijo.

También relató cómo fue trasladada en avión al Jackson Memorial Hospital, en Miami, y habló de las secuelas que le dejaron sus heridas.

Quebrándose en el estrado, dijo: “Hay muchas cosas que yo hacía y que nunca más podré volver a hacer”.

Durante el contrainterrogatorio, Moise describió a su esposo como un hombre dedicado a combatir a los oligarcas y decidido a llevar comida y electricidad al pueblo haitiano. Dijo que esos esfuerzos le crearon enemigos.

Sin embargo, también buscó desvincularse de los asuntos políticos de la presidencia y dijo al jurado que su esposo, por lo general, mantenía la política fuera de la casa.

“Jovenel evitaba a toda costa hablar de política en la casa”, dijo.

Sierra, de 42 años, se declaró culpable en agosto de tres cargos de asesinato y tres de secuestro por la muerte, en 2012, de Gladys Machado y sus hijas, Julia Padrino, de 6 años, y Daniella Padrino, de 3.

La primera jornada de la fase de sentencia comenzó con los fiscales detallando los asesinatos y argumentando que los crímenes merecen la pena de muerte.

“Este es el instrumento de muerte que usó: una bolsa de Sedano’s igualita a esta”, dijo a los miembros del jurado la fiscal principal, Abbe Rifkin, mientras mostraba una bolsa plástica de supermercado.

Rifkin describió cómo Sierra, que entonces tenía 28 años, atacó a Machado y a sus hijas, y dijo al jurado que torturó y humilló a Machado antes de matarla.

Los fiscales también describieron la muerte de las dos niñas.

Según Rifkin, Julia presenció la muerte de su madre antes de que Sierra la asfixiara con una bolsa plástica.

Daniella, a quien le faltaban pocos días para cumplir 4 años, estaba dormida cuando Sierra la atacó, según la Fiscalía. Rifkin dijo al jurado que Sierra estranguló a la niña con el mismo tipo de bolsa plástica.

“La despertó con violencia al asfixiarla hasta matarla”, dijo Rifkin.

La Fiscalía presentó además acusaciones de que Machado y Julia fueron agredidas sexualmente después de muertas. Rifkin calificó los crímenes de “especialmente abominables, atroces y crueles”.

Sierra permaneció en silencio durante la exposición inicial, con la mirada a menudo fija en la mesa de la defensa.

Se espera que la defensa argumente que el jurado debe tomar en cuenta circunstancias atenuantes antes de decidir la sentencia.

Los abogados defensores dijeron al jurado que varios expertos declararán sobre el historial de Sierra, incluida una supuesta lesión cerebral traumática que sufrió en un accidente automovilístico cuando era niño y que, según ellos, afectó de forma permanente su personalidad y sus capacidades cognitivas.

Según la ley de Florida, durante la fase de sentencia el jurado sopesa las circunstancias agravantes y atenuantes antes de recomendar si el acusado debe recibir cadena perpetua o la pena de muerte.

Se espera que el jurado escuche más testimonios y pruebas en los próximos días antes de emitir su recomendación.

La iniciativa se produce cuatro días después que concluyó el segundo ciclo de conversaciones formales entre delegados del Legislativo unicameral —de abrumadora mayoría oficialista— y exdiputados de la oposición (2015-2020), en las que se acordó ampliar el desbloqueo de sitios web y revisar leyes que regulan férreamente los contenidos en los medios radioeléctricos y digitales.

Activistas por los derechos humanos sostienen que esas leyes forman parte de un andamiaje legal con el que se pretende restringir la libertad de expresión e información en el país sudamericano.

Las partes se reunieron en Caracas con el propósito de diseñar una agenda conjunta para fortalecer la democracia y restituir derechos fundamentales tras casi tres décadas de gobiernos socialistas.

La presidenta en funciones indicó que la llamada “Ley contra el Odio, por la convivencia Pacífica y la Tolerancia”, promulgada en 2017 en medio de masivas protestas callejeras en contra del ahora depuesto presidente Nicolás Maduro (2013-2026), fue “lamentablemente mal aplicada”.

Durante un acto de gobierno televisado en el estado agrícola de Portuguesa, ubicado en el centro del país, Rodríguez dijo que se hizo “uso abusivo de esa ley.... pero yo creo en los principios de esa ley, el principio de la tolerancia, el principio del amor en relacionamiento, que no se imponga el odio”.

La ley fue aprobada por la Asamblea Constituyente, integrada en su totalidad por aliados de Maduro, quien entonces la impulsó argumentando que era necesario poner fin a los supuestos mensajes de odio, guerra, intolerancia y racismo que presuntamente esgrimían los adversarios del gobierno.

Maduro sostenía que ese tipo de mensajes desencadenaron las protestas antigubernamentales que entre abril y julio dejaron más de 120 muertos. Partidos opositores y activistas de derechos humanos alertaron que la ley buscaba criminalizar la protesta pacífica.

Rodríguez era entonces la presidenta de la Constituyente y resaltaba que ese instrumento legal buscaba un castigo severo para desestimular cualquier práctica de intolerancia y garantizar la convivencia pacífica entre los venezolanos.

En una carta dirigida al Legislativo y publicada en su canal de Telegram, Rodríguez señaló previamente que la reforma busca “avanzar en la despenalización de los tipos penales previsto en esta norma” y que forma parte de acciones para “transformar el sistema de justicia penal” y favorecer el “reencuentro” y la “convivencia democrática" en Venezuela.

Schmitt accused Smith of perjuring himself during a Senate hearing after repeatedly prodding him about whether he'd attended an NBA game in Atlanta on the evening of Feb. 3, 2024. The hometown Hawks were playing the Golden State Warriors.

Schmitt appeared to be trying to set Smith in Atlanta at the time Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was facing scrutiny for her romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the special state prosecutor she hired for the county's election-interference case against Trump.

“So your testimony today is that you did not go to a Hawks game on Feb. 3, 2024. Is that correct?” Schmitt asks sharply. “What would you say if I had a series of text messages from your team that said you were in Atlanta at a Warriors-Hawks game on Feb. 2, 2024?”

Smith said he didn't think he had visited Atlanta as special prosecutor, and was even more certain he hadn't attended an Atlanta Hawks game.

He did, however, recall attending a University of Iowa women's game at the University of Maryland on Feb. 3, 2024, recalling the game as one where then-Iowa star Caitlin Clark was playing.

“Could it then be that the University of Iowa was the Hawkeyes?” Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota interjected. “Perhaps you should have looked at it more carefully.”

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Local 10 News recently spoke with the children’s mother, who asked to be identified only as Shaniqua, and pleaded with the driver to come forward.

“Stop trying to hide it. You hit somebody. You hit my kids. You didn’t stop,” Shaniqua said.

Now, deputies with the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office say they have arrested the man responsible.

Arick Metayer, 33, is accused of hitting Peyton Williams and her 15-year-old brother, Brent, as the siblings rode an electric bicycle near Northwest 117th Street and Seventh Avenue on Sept. 9, according to deputies with the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies said Peyton later died and Brent was critically injured.

According to an arrest report, Metayer drove away from the scene before he allegedly took steps to hide evidence of the crash.

Surveillance video captured Metayer stopping nearby, getting out of his Nissan Versa and looking at damage to the passenger side of the vehicle, investigators said.

They said he then drove away.

Investigators said Metayer then went to a U-Pull-It in Davie a day later, where surveillance video showed him buying two passenger-side doors and a mirror to replace the damaged parts.

The replacement parts were a different color, the report states.

Investigators also confirmed that cellphone records placed Metayer at the auto parts yard and later showed him taking a Brightline train from Miami to Orlando.

His arrest report also details a conversation with a witness who told investigators he helped Metayer transport the replacement doors.

The witness said he later called Metayer and told him the little girl he had hit had died, according to deputies.

According to the report, Metayer then told the witness, “I know. I’m going to hire an attorney.”

Weeks earlier, Peyton’s mother, Shaniqua, had publicly pleaded with the driver to come forward.

“You left them in the streets like they were animals. They didn’t deserve that,” Shaniqua said. “Just imagine her life — being here that short period of time, (having) touched so many people.”

Authorities said Metayer surrendered to deputies on Monday and was taken into custody.

In a social media post Tuesday, Shaniqua ripped into the suspect, saying in part, “How dare you …. The nerve of u, I pray they make u suffer … u took my soul, u took my heart, my insides are on fire, den u went to try and fix the car, u tried to hide and cover this up!!”

She also blasted someone who filmed her children on the ground after the crash, saying they were “just as guilty as the driver.”

“I hate this happened, I hate life right now, I’m so weak and broken, I just can’t understand this, (how) a person (can) be so cruel,” Shaniqua wrote. “They tryna protect you, when you ain’t protect my kids, that video of u hitting them was so heartbreaking, u ain’t stop, break nor turn around u hit them and left them in the street like animals!!!”

“This won’t be swept under the rug, I’m on yo a**, every court date, every hearing, u will hate this ever happened!! I promise u, Peyton, mommy will get justice for u baby girl!! They gone forever remember you,” she added.

Jail records show Metayer is facing felony charges of leaving the scene of a crash involving a death, leaving the scene of a crash involving serious bodily injury and tampering with physical evidence.

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

Martine Moise left the federal courthouse after a day of testimony that included graphic photographs from the July 7, 2021, attack at the presidential residence in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince.

Prosecutors say Sanon was among the ringleaders of a plot largely orchestrated and financed from South Florida to overthrow and kill Jovenel Moise.

Armed men, most of them former Colombian soldiers, stormed the Moises’ home in the early morning hours. On the witness stand, Martine Moise recalled hearing the attackers shouting in Spanish.

Jurors were shown photographs of the couple’s bedroom in disarray, with blood smeared across the floor. One photograph showed the president’s body, at a distance, on the floor beside his bed.

Investigators say Jovenel Moise was shot multiple times and died. Martine Moise was shot in the arm. The couple’s two children were able to hide during the attack and were not injured.

Through tears, Martine Moise recalled seeing her children after the attack.

“I thought everything was over. That I lost everyone. When I saw my children, I regained strength,” she said.

She also described being airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami and the lasting effects of her injuries.

Breaking down on the stand, she said: “There are many things I used to do, and I will never be able to do them ever again.”

During cross-examination, Moise described her husband as dedicated to fighting oligarchs and determined to bring food and electricity to the people of Haiti. She said those efforts created enemies.

But she also sought to distance herself from the political affairs of the presidency, telling jurors that her husband generally kept politics out of their home.

“(Jovenel) avoided at all costs discussing politics inside the home,” she said.

Wednesday will feature mostly cloudy skies with the possibility for scattered showers and storms-- morning and afternoon. Also, moderate or minor saltwater flooding will be possible at the time of high tide (just after the noon hour Wednesday). Temperatures are expected to peak in the mid-80s.

The Sept. 9 letter was addressed to White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, and the team said it arrived at Chicago's Rate Field on Tuesday ahead of Game 1 of its AL Wild Card Series against the Astros.

The White Sox won Game 1 of the best-of-three series 6-3.

Leo is a White Sox fan dating to his days growing up in Chicago. He was known as Robert Prevost or Father Bob when he went to the World Series opener 21 years ago, a 5-3 White Sox victory over the Astros.

“The Pope having our back and supporting us means a lot," White Sox manager Will Venable said.

The pontiff began his note by thanking Reinsdorf for the letter he sent after the team paid tribute to Leo during an Aug. 11 game against Cincinnati.

“It is my hope that the White Sox will continue to foster bonds of friendship and solidarity among people, and thus bear hopeful witness to the possibility of living and working together in peace,” Leo wrote.

“With these sentiments, I willingly invoke the Almighty's abundant blessings upon you and your loved ones.”

The White Sox earned an AL wild card this year by finishing with an 84-78 record. They lost at least 101 games in each of the previous three seasons.

Asked recently if he had a hand in the team's surprising turnaround, the smiling pontiff responded “No comment.”

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